Sago Tree

These palms are low trees, rarely over 9 meters tall, with a stout, spiny trunk. The outer rind is about 5 centimeters thick and hard as bamboo. The rind encloses a spongy inner pith containing a high proportion of starch. It has typical palmlike leaves clustered at the tip.

Habitat and Distribution: Sago palm is found in tropical rain forests. It flourishes in damp lowlands in the Malay Peninsula, New Guinea, Indonesia, the Philippines, and adjacent islands. It is found mainly in swamps and along streams, lakes, and rivers.

Edible Parts: These palms, when available, are of great use to the survivor. One trunk, cut just before it flowers, will yield enough sago to feed a person for 1 year. Obtain sago starch from nonflowering palms. To extract the edible sage, cut away the bark lengthwise from one half of the trunk, and pound the soft, whitish inner part (pith) as fine as possible. Knead the pith in water and strain it through a coarse cloth into a container. The fine, white sago will settle in the container. Once the sago settles, it is ready for use. Squeeze off the excess water and let it dry. Cook it as pancakes or oatmeal. Two kilograms of sago is the nutritional equivalent of 1.5
kilograms of rice. The upper part of the trunk's core does not yield sage, but you can roast it in lumps over a fire. You can also eat the young sago nuts and the growing shoots or palm cabbage.

From 1980 to 2000, the Philippines’ annual growth in the production of rice averaged at only 1.9%. This, according to a bulletin published by the Senate Economic Planning Office, is well below the country’s yearly population growth rate of 2.4%.

Apparently, the country needs to look for more food crops that will sustain its people’s carbohydrate diet. The most likely candidates are cassava, camote (sweet potato), and sago—all popular starch-rich resources. Moreover, cassava and sago are inexpensive and less agriculturally intensive.

However, Prof. Dulce M. Flores of UP Mindanao Department of Food Science says that of these food crops, sago is the most underutilized despite its potential for diversification into high value products, such as food ingredients and industrial raw materials. Also, while cassava and camote are ubiquitous mainstays in markets, sago is not. This comes as a surprise because sago is a high-yielding crop, which means it grows in abundance and thrives even in waterlogged acidic soils where only very few plants survive.

In her research, “Utilizing the Indigenous Plant Starch Sources in Mindanao: Sago Palm,” Flores looked into the possibilities of tapping sago as a major agricultural product. She went to Agusan del Sur, Agusan del Norte, Lupon, Davao Oriental, and Sta. Cruz in Davao del Sur for samplings of sago wild stands. In Southern Mindanao, she interviewed locals and confirmed sightings of the same sago variety. She also took samples from Cebu to determine whether geographic location affects the morphological characteristics of sago. Indeed, sago is popular among the rural inhabitants of the South, particularly Muslims and Manobos.

Flores points out that the natives have a crude way of extracting the starch content of sago. In Cebu Island, for example, they strip and sun-dry the sago trunk. Then they pulverize the dried strips and cook the powder. Mindanao natives just scrape the trunk after splitting it in half. It was observed, however, that the sago palm is more of a roofing material than a food source for the natives. “There has been rampant cutting of this wild plant [sago palm] for roofing purposes and also to give way for other high value cash crops like rice and oil palm,” laments Flores. “If [this practice] continues, the Philippines is in danger of losing a ‘miracle plant’ that we hope will feed [its] exploding population.”

To save sago from extinction, she suggests the development of a technology that will enable the maximization of the plant’s benefits. In Malaysia, she says, plantations produce an average of 50 tons of refined sago starch per day because they employ machine-operated extraction. They export their produce to the United States, Japan, and Europe. The Malaysian government has also allotted 80,000 hectares for sago plantations. “[In a few years,] the plantations will be ready for harvest,” she points out. “The biotechnology must be developed now [so we can make the most of] this huge supply of starch source.”

Flores is also pushing for UP Mindanao to become the Center for Sago Conservation and Utilization. The Center will lead academic institutions in the research development of sago culture and propagation, national inventory and protection of wild stands, and better utilization