Studies on the Starch Productivity of Sago Palm in Riau, West Kalimantan and Irian Jaya, Indonesia

摘要

Sago palm (Metroxylon sagu Rottb.) trees grow in an area of 2.6 million hectares in the world, and most of them (2.4 million hectares) grow in Irian Jaya. Indonesia and Papua New Guinea as wild or natural forest. The distribution, genetic diversity and starch-production potential of sago palm in Indonesia were investigated in 2001-2003. In the Tebing Tinggi Island, sub-district of Riau. P.T. National Timber & Forest Products (PTNTFP) started to establish a 20,000-hectare commercial plantation of sagopalm on with deep peat soil in 1996. The non-swamp land was divided by canals into the blocks of 50-hectares each and the water table was regulated at 20-50 cm below the surface, and sago suckers nursed on the floating raft in canals, are planted at a square spacing of 10 m. Now modernized starch processing factories are under construction. In Pontianak. West Kalimantan, about 5,000 hectares of sago palm forest spreads along the Kapuas River. However, the sago palm growing in the inland have thicker trunks than those growing near the river. The starch processing factories along the river produce 25-500t of dry or wet starch per month, which is marketed to a Java Company producing rice noodles for 1,350 Rupiah per kilogram. The big factory only refinedthe wet starch into dry starch. In Sentani sub-district of Irian Jaya, wet sago starch is the staple food (Papeda) for the people living near the swampy area even today. There are about 4,000-5,000 hectares of sago palm natural forest around the SentaniLake. Sixty-one types of sago palm were collected from the natural forest, then the phenotypic characters were compared and two type of varieties Yepha (spineless) and Phara (spine) were recommended for starch production. Wet sago starch is sold for 1,000-1,500 Rupiah per kilogram at the market. Rotating rasper is used for crushing the pith, but washing and extraction of starch are done by hand by women. The starch yield per trunk was highest in Irian Jaya (835kg), followed by Riau (225kg) and lowest in West Kalimantan (100kg). The starch yield of 835kg per trunk is higher than that in different locations (160-550kg). The starch content of pith can be easily estimated by measuring of bulk density of pith.