This Jamaican Breakfast Staple Survives Hurricanes: Students are planting thousands of breadfruit trees
In early December, weeks after the strongest Atlantic hurricane on record passed through western Jamaica, a group of university students stood in a three-mile basin. They were in Cave - a small community in Jamaica's westernmost parish, the aptly named Westmoreland. One by one, the students dug holes in ground soft from nearby ponds that keep the soil damp long after rainfall ends.
They were planting breadfruit.
A single breadfruit tree can produce hundreds of meals every year for decades. That is why natural science students from Northern Caribbean University believe this familiar Caribbean staple could play a much bigger role in feeding the region.
Despite the school's location in the south of the country, 25 students made the journey to the west to plant 100 breadfruit tree seedlings that December morning alongside faculty and residents.
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The goal may sound simple - storms destroy crops and imported food is expensive. Breadfruit grows well here, so plant more of it. But behind that simple idea is a bigger question that many researchers and development groups are now asking:
Can breadfruit become part of the Caribbean’s answer to solving food shortages?
Why breadfruit? The benefits
Breadfruit's reputation in Jamaica is largely as the breakfast sidekick to the national dish - ackee and saltfish. But it is so much more than that.
Breadfruit trees do something unusual compared with most staple foods. Once a tree matures, it produces fruit every year for decades. In many cases the harvest can reach hundreds of fruits annually, and some trees continue bearing for half a century or more.
A breadfruit tree can produce up to 300 fruits per year, according to agricultural researchers working with the Trees That Feed Foundation.
Nutritional value breadfruit provides include:
- carbohydrates
- fibre
- potassium
- magnesium
- small amounts of protein
That productivity explains why breadfruit is sometimes described as “bread growing on trees.” Cooked properly, it can replace rice, potatoes or flour-based foods.
Unlike rice or wheat, farmers do not need to replant every season. The tree stays in the ground and keeps producing. For small island countries facing hurricanes and rising import bills, that reliability matters.
Daphne Ewing-Chow for Forbes.com
Breadfruit as a response to hurricane damage
Hurricane Melissa caused widespread devastation, from small vegetable gardens to thousands of acres of agricultural land. Replacing trees became an obvious first recovery step.
NCU Lecturer Nadia Washington-Daley, who is the project lead and a Cave resident, said breadfruit made particular sense because people already know how to cook it.
“The breadfruit tree was the obvious first choice for our pilot project because it is a staple that directly improves food security for community members,” she explained during the initiative.
Seedlings came through a partnership with the Trees That Feed Foundation, a nonprofit that distributes fruit trees in regions facing hunger and environmental damage. In addition to Jamaica, they have also supplied breadfruit trees to Haiti and Pakistan.
Putting breadfruit in every backyard
The students aren't the only ones who believe in breadfruit.
Across the Caribbean, and in parts of Africa and the Pacific, development groups and agricultural researchers have returned to breadfruit as a crop suited to tropical climates and their challenges.
Hurricane Maria devastated 80% of Puerto Rico's crop in 2017, with breadfruit trees one of the few left standing.
In 2019, after Hurricane Dorian devastated parts of the Bahamas, aid groups distributed thousands of breadfruit seedlings to rebuild household food supplies.
That same year, Omardath Maharaj, Trinidadian Agricultural Economist and Instructor at the University of the West Indies’ (UWI) Faculty of Food and Agriculture, launched ‘105 To Stay Alive’. The initiative aims to encourage the consumption of local food and highlight the nutritional value of breadfruit, reducing reliance on imported food items.
“105 Breadfruit trees can be planted comfortably on 2.5 acres of land. These will each produce around 300 Breadfruit every year. The 31,500 breadfruit weigh approximately 252,000 pounds; this provides 126 tons of food mass!” the lecturer told Forbes at the time.
The project was supported by "Breadfruittrees.com", a Facebook community with the ambitious goal of encouraging a breadfruit tree in every Trinidad and Tobago backyard.
Research after research leads to bold claims: breadfruit has the potential to solve hunger in tropical regions.
Gloria Dickie
A crop tailor-made for the tropics
Breadfruit is actually a Pacific fruit that was brought to the Caribbean by the British in the late eighteenth century.
According to the National Tropical Botanical Garden, when Europeans came upon the fruit in the Indo-Malay region, "...they were amazed and delighted by a tree that produced prolific, starchy fruits that, when roasted in a fire, resembled freshly baked bread in texture and aroma."
By the nineteenth century the crop had spread across the region.
Research from the University of the West Indies notes that despite becoming part of everyday Caribbean cooking, commercial production remains limited.
For Omardath Maharaj, this is wasted potential for agricultural policy.
“The literature is abundant on breadfruit’s multi-functional role as a substantial food source with various uses including as a gluten-free food, insect repellent, latex material, fabric and animal feed."
From backyard fruit to breadfruit flour
One reason breadfruit never scaled commercially was storage. Fresh breadfruit spoils quickly. Without processing facilities, farmers often could not sell extra harvest.
That barrier is starting to change.
Food scientists and small manufacturers have developed ways to extend shelf life by turning breadfruit into:
- flour
- chips
- baked goods
- dried products
Breadfruit flour, in particular, has drawn interest because it is naturally gluten-free, making it suitable for people who cannot eat wheat.
Some Caribbean projects now combine tree planting with small processing facilities, creating income opportunities for rural communities.
Amy Hoak
More than just breadfruit - students rebuilding forests
Back in Westmoreland, the trees planted by the students represent only the beginning. About sixty percent of their 10,000-trees goal will produce edible fruit such as breadfruit, mango and ackee. The rest will include native timber and ornamental species. The mixture follows the principles of agroforestry — agriculture combined with forest restoration which help:
- protect soil
- reduce erosion
- support wildlife habitats
Students from Northern Caribbean University will monitor the sites over time, tracking soil conditions and tree growth. The university also plans to establish a nursery to produce additional seedlings beginning in 2026.
Breadfruit for the Future
Jamaica spends billions each year importing food. At the same time, breadfruit grows across hillsides, schoolyards and roadside verges. No single crop can solve a nation’s food challenges as agriculture always requires diversity.
Still, the math is hard to ignore.
If one tree produces hundreds of fruits each year, and thousands of those trees exist across the island, the contribution to national diets could become significant.
Today the project in Cave district looks modest, a hundred seedlings in a small valley. But decades from now, those trees could still be feeding families who were not even born when the students planted them.
Maharaj understands this well.
"One simple intervention could impact more than 10,000 families if we begin to share our resources, talk with our neighbours and genuinely look out for each other’s interests. It is literally bread that grows on trees, food for our future.”
