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Amyloplasts, in which starch granules accumulate, are formed near the apical portion of sago palm stems. Amyloplast separation and division occur abundantly and specifically in the apical portion and in the basal stem during the middle and even in the late growth stage. Because of those separations and divisions, amyloplast sizes differ greatly among varieties and stem portions within a plant. The numbers of amyloplasts in the cross-sectional area of the parenchyma tissue also differ among cultivars. Generally, a stem parenchyma cell has 10–30 amyloplasts. Most amyloplasts are egg-like structures with a smooth surface. Still, the sago palm starch grain size is situated in the middle of grain sizes of 54 examined plant species. Furthermore, intercellular spaces are large in sago palm stem tissue, accounting for nearly 40–50% of their total space. This specific feature is a causal factor supporting the starch yield. These results suggest that the separation and division, amyloplast shape, amyloplast size diversity, and large intercellular spaces are specific to sago palm stems. Moreover, intercellular spaces are large in stem tissue, which might be a factor strongly affecting the starch yield.

The United Nations (FAO) projected that global food production needs to be increased by 60% by 2050 to meet increasing world demands as a result of rapid population growth and per capita food consumption increase. However, there is a very little room to expand agricultural land, while water scarcity is threatening future agricultural production potential. Under the circumstances, it is predicted that nearly 90% of the food production increase should come from existing arable land through yield increase and advancement of agricultural research and innovation. On the other hand, the world is facing other serious challenges and uncertainties resulting from the stagnation of productivity growth of major cereal crops, advancement of negative impacts of climate change, and competition on the use of agricultural land and water with bioenergy crops. It is uncertain if and whether the world can meet the challenging target by 2050. Otherwise, the world food security, peace, and stability would be seriously threatened. The situation sparked scientific interest in identifying alternative food resources, which can be grown on underutilized lands without or with less competition with existing food crops, tolerant to stress environmental conditions, and produce a substantial quantity of food or starch. FAO recognized that neglected and underutilized species play a crucial role in the fight against hunger and are a key resource for agriculture and rural development for the benefit of smallholder farmers. In addition, many neglected and underutilized species play a role in keeping cultural diversity alive. They occupy important niches, conserving traditional landscape, adapted to the risky and fragile conditions of rural communities.

Against this backdrop, sago palm ( Rottb.) was identified as one of the most promising typical underutilized food crops with very little attention and research in the past. It can be grown in underutilized wetlands and peat swamps where other food crops cannot grow economically. It produces a high yield of edible starch (about 150–300 kg of dry starch per plant), while different parts of the palm tree can be utilized as roofing materials, animal feeds, sago worm production, mat and basket weaving, etc., which would contribute to promoting national and household food security and enhancing family income and employment generation at rural villages.

Sago palms grow well on riverbanks, near lakes, and in wet soil. They can be found at 700 m elevation in PNG and are well adapted in marginal soils where cash crops cannot grow. Sago palms can grow from low flooded areas to uplands and in soils which are from very acidic to neutral. Sago is one of the most efficient carbohydrate-producing crops. Sago is distributed naturally from Melanesia in the South Pacific in the east (180°E. Long.) to India in the west (90°E. Long.) and from Mindanao in the north (10°N. Lat.) to Java in the south (10°S. Lat.). Sago populations in the world occupy 2.4 million ha.

Temperature plays a key role in sago palm growth. The lowest temperature at which sago palms will grow is 15 °C. When temperatures are lower than 13 °C at the seedling stage, sago palms are not able to survive, and the mortality percentage increases. Moreover, fewer leaves are produced at low temperatures. The optimum relative humidity and sunlight intensity for sago palms are 90% and 900 j/cm/day. The optimum rainfall for sago is 2000 mm per year. In addition, sago can grow when the location has less than two dry months and more than nine wet months.

Sago palms can grow in various types of soils: (1) undeveloped soils, such as sulfaquents (sulfidic soil), hidraquents (waterlogged), tropaquents (tropical climate), fluvaquents (alluvial), and psammaquents (sandy soils), and (2) developed soils, such as tropaquepts, troposaprists of peatlands, tropohemists and sulfihemists (sulfuric soil and low pH), and thaptohistic fluvaquents.

Sago palms thrive in swampy conditions where the pneumatophores are not submerged, where mineral nutrition and organic matter are high, and where the standing water is brown and slightly acidic. Such a habitat is suitable for the growth of microorganisms that benefit sago palm growth. Sago palms can also grow in swampy areas near the sea, as they are tolerant of salinity. Sago palms have avoidance tolerance to Na. Excess Na is stored in the roots.

Subsidence will occur after peatlands have been drained, and the process occurs very quickly. Subsidence is approximately 20–50 cm year during the early building of a drainage network. Land clearing for agricultural purposes is usually accompanied by the draining of peatlands. Drainage negatively impacts the soil by decreasing the soil level, which triggers the land’s unavailability for agricultural use. Sago palm plantations can be a solution to the degradation of peatlands due to the maintenance of the water level. Sago palms grow optimally in swampy and waterlogged conditions and peatlands. Due to the maintenance of the water level during the sago palm growing period, the degradation of peatlands can be avoided. Sago palm cultivation on peat soil will conserve not only water but also soil, so the environment will be maintained. Sago palms also support peatlands in storing carbon and minimizing greenhouse effects. Moreover, sago palms have the highest CO absorption as compared to other major crops.

This chapter describes how people in sago-growing areas are involved with sago, especially in those areas where local people consume sago starch as their staple food, and also describes the cultural and social aspects of sago usage in these areas. Sago is claimed to be one of the oldest crops, and it was the staple foods in large areas of Southeast Asia and Oceania, together with taro and yam, before rice largely replaced these crops. In some areas in Southeast Asia and Oceania, sago is still the staple food, and the sago palm is used not only as a food source but also for various purposes, such as thatching materials. In these areas, sago plays various kinds of social roles as well as being a food. In other areas, such as some places in Malaysia and Indonesia, commercialization of sago starch is practiced, and the starch is processed industrially in factories. Since sago is one of the older crops, it is related to many aspects of people’s lives in the sago-growing areas. Having a large number of folk varieties in these areas indicates that sago has a close relationship with people’s interests and that it is deeply involved with people’s lives. These are shown in mythology, rituals, feasts, and many other human activities.

Fourteen genera among three subfamilies in the Arecaceae family are known to produce starch in the trunk. The genus is the most productive among them and is classified into section including only one species, (sago palm: called the true sago palm), distributed in Southeast Asia and Melanesia and section consisting of in Micronesia, and in Melanesia, in Melanesia and Polynesia, and in Polynesia. In sago palm, a relationship between the genetic distance and geographical distribution of populations was found as the result of a random amplified polymorphic DNA analysis. A smaller genetic variation of sago palm in the western part than in the eastern part of the Malay Archipelago was also found, which indicated that the more genetically varied populations are distributed in the eastern area and are possibly divided into four broad groups. has a smaller trunk than sago palm, but the trunk length of , , and is comparable to or longer than that of sago palm. Their leaves are important as building and houseware material, and the hard endosperm of and seeds is utilized as craftwork material. Preemergent young leaves around the growing point of are utilized as a vegetable. Regarding starch yield, palms in are all low in the dry matter and pith starch content as compared with sago palm. For this reason, and have low yield despite the large size of their trunk. Palms in are mostly regarded as emergency crops and had been utilized when major crops suffered climate damage. Today, roof thatching is the most common use of the leaves, and the domestication of is currently under way in Vanuatu and Samoa.

Information of genetic diversity is very important in supporting the implementation of genetic resource conservation and plant breeding. This study aims to determine the genetic diversity of 11 sago palm accessions that have been collected by the Sago Research Consortium (SRC), University of Papua (UNIPA). Methods of research were divided into three steps. Step 1 was DNA extraction by using Geneaid DNA plant Mini Kit. Step 2 was PCR amplification fragments DNA by using KAPA2G Robust HotStart polymerases and performed by using Bio-Rad PCR instrument. Step 3 was purified and sequenced DNA by Macrogen Inc. Seoul, Korea. Data analyses were performed by using a MEGA6.06 software. Morphological characteristics in the rosette stage of 11 sago palm accessions were divided into 4 phenotypes only, and several accessions showed the same phenotypes. Based on atp6-2 gene markers, the 11 sago palm accessions had a different genetic characteristic among the others. Genetic distances among 11 sago palm accessions were in the range among 0.22 and 3.01 with an average 1.21 pairwise distant. Phylogenetic construction showed that the genetic relationship of 11 sago palm accessions was clustered into 6 groups. The accession numbers SP001 and SP002 are in group 1, the accession numbers SP003 and SP011 group 2, the accession numbers SP005 and SP007 group 3, the accession number SP009 group 4, the accession numbers SP008 and SP010 group 5, and the accession numbers SP004 and SP006 group 6. Nucleotide sequence alignments of mitochondrial atp6-2 gene and introns were different from each other in 11 accessions.

The major world commercial sago producers are Malaysia and Indonesia. In Malaysia, sago was mainly produced in family-owned small factories (<100 mt/month) before the 1980s. There were over 40 such sago factories along the Mukah and Dalat Rivers. Modernized sago-processing factories (500–1000 mt/month) mushroomed in the 1980s, largely replacing the small factories by late 1980 to early 1990. Processing technologies in these larger factories were mostly adopted from cassava processing with innovations to tackle the structural differences between sago and cassava. Malaysian’s annual sago export is around 47,000 mt. Sago palms were mostly cultivated in a semi-wild state by smallholders. This is still the mainstream cultivation practice by most smallholders today. A large-scale sago plantation was initiated in the mid-1980s, but the outcome was disappointing.

In Indonesia, the hub of commercial sago production is at Selat Panjang. About 80,000–90,000 mt of dried sago is produced annually. Processing is mostly done in the 50–60 small factories with capacity ranging from 50 to 200 mt/month. In 2010, a 3000 mt/month modern sago factory was built at Selat Panjang and is in operation. In the late 1980s, medium-sized factories were also established in Halmahera (Maluku) and Arandai (West Papua) but were subsequently closed down. A new sago factory (3000 mt/month) is currently under establishment at West Papua.

At Selat Panjang, sago palms are mainly cultivated in a semi-wild manner in smallholdings, similar to those practiced in Malaysia. A 12,000 ha sago plantation employing improved agronomic/management practices was initiated in 1996. It is still in production though not all the palms are in optimal growth conditions. Development of natural sago forest at West Papua initiated at around 2010. Harvesting of existing mature palms followed by systematic rehabilitation was planned and is ongoing.

Marketing of sago starch was mainly confined to meet domestic demands in Malaysia and Indonesia. The sago starch is mainly used in food industries like vermicelli and glass noodles.

In this paper, more detailed reports are given with specific reference to technological innovation in cultivation and processing. Potentials and challenges in plantation development, processing, and marketing are also discussed.

Realizing the potentials of sago as a new commodity to contribute to the Sarawak economy, the government initiated the development of sago plantations to address the shortage of raw materials in order to support the sago industry in its starch export and downstream activities. Initially the development of sago plantations was on peat, based on findings that sago can tolerate wet conditions including peat swamps. Furthermore Sarawak has the largest peat soil area in Malaysia of about 1.5 million hectares. For over the period of 15 years, it was observed that only 4% show good growth performance and these palms are mainly on shallow peat areas (<1.5 m), while those on very deep peat areas (>2.5 m) showed poor growth performance at the trunking phase as characterized by small crowns, low leaf count, stunted growth, and low succession suckers.

The Crop Research and Application Unit (CRAUN) conducted detailed studies of sago growth performance on peat to find solutions to the problems mentioned above. The study covers land preparation, prospection and selection of quality planting material, nursery management, nutritional and soil studies, cultural practices, and weed and pest control.

Based on the agronomic and cultural practices done by CRAUN for the past 10 years, it was observed that the performance of sago on peat areas (>2.5 m) for the first 4 years did show good growth and were on par with those palms grown on mineral soil. However, upon reaching trunking phase (4 years onward), the growth performance began to deteriorate, exhibiting distinct elemental deficiency symptoms, low leaf count, tapering trunk, and low yield.

Cost comparison on the development of sago on alluvial and peat shows a significant difference between the two soil types whereby the latter incurred high development cost and low revenue and thus contributed to the low internal rate of return (IRR). Therefore it is not economic and feasible to cultivate sago on peat. Recommendations for any new sago expansion program should focus on mineral or shallow peat soil.

The sago industry has a pivotal role to exploit underutilized sago starch in the sago forest but is little known in terms of the feasibility of existing sago-processing industries, particularly in small islands. This paper outlines the feasibility and possible future development of existing sago industries in Maluku, Indonesia. Data were collected from field observations, in-depth interviews, and focus group discussions from nine small-scale sago industries in Ambon and Seram Islands. Existing sago industries were found financially feasible in the short term but may be unsustainable over the longer term. Modern sago industries are 25 times higher in investment and operational costs but 15 times higher in production, up to 4 times higher in labor absorption, and 5 times higher in profit than that of semi-modern industry technology. However, modern sago industries are difficult to sustain because of the high price of raw material, uncertain market demand, fragile institutional development, and uncertain sago forest sustainability in the islands because the cutting of sago trees occurs about 15 times faster than that of conventional technology industry. This suggests that sustainable sago industries for food security in Maluku need adaptive technology to improve added value and to reduce operational costs and be small scale but intensive and efficient.

Papua New Guinea (PNG) is known to have a large resource base of sago with over 1 million ha, as well as a high number of germplasm types of the species. The country’s food security status is very low and is primarily dependent on subsistence fresh garden produce as practiced by 85% of the population who are rural dwellers. Postharvest losses can be as high as 40% with little to no postharvest technology nor processing of foods done. Sago provides well for food security and sustains life in rural communities during disasters such as droughts, floods, and cyclones. The dilemma of sago being an underutilized crop in PNG is exacerbated by the introduction of new food crops, cash crops, and limited accessibility to cash to purchase other foods. Over the last 50 years, sago consumption has diminished as one of the major traditional food staples, from 16% to less than 10%. Neglect of sago is further due to food safety concerns about traditionally processed sago, in particular, the risk from sago hemolytic disease (SHD). For over 30 years, SHD has been a food safety issue since it was first reported in 1973. Investigations on SHD highlight the serious need to improve on the hygiene and sanitation of the traditional postharvest processing and storage methods of sago starch in PNG. A set of hazard analysis and critical control point (HACCP) protocols has been developed for traditional processing of sago as a food safety measure to improve food safety for food security. While commercial cultivation is nonexistent, there is increased planting of the larger hapaxanthic, non-soboliferous sago species, Becc., in some nontraditional sago-consuming areas as a low-cost raw material source for roof thatching and other building materials. It is however a wasted opportunity for food security in these areas as the starch from the palm is not utilized. Current work in these areas promotes sago as a potential food source that can be harvested or processed into flour. This is to improve the food security status in areas of high population density, like island communities where land is scarce.