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CITATION Estaña, Leo Manuel B.*, Joseph E. Acosta, Nilo B. Oponda and John Paul L. Oñez. 2015. “Density Survey of Sago Palms in Sago-identified Areas in Mindanao, Southern Philippines.” Paper presented at the Joint International Conference on Agribusiness and Cooperatives, Davao City, Philippines, 14–16 October. OPEN ACCESS POLICY This material was presented during a conference organized by the Institute of Cooperatives and Bio-Enterprise Development (ICOPED), College of Economics and Management, University of the Philippines Los Baños, and the Office of Research of the University of the Philippines Mindanao. In support of the open access initiative, the organizers provide unrestricted access to these materials to foment wider dissemination and exchange of ideas. Authors are encouraged to practice selfarchiving of their presentations for public use in a noncommercial repository. Copyright of this uploaded material remains with its author. For more downloadable materials, visit http://ojs.upmin.edu.ph/index.php/supplements

Density Survey of Sago Palms in Sago-identified Areas in Mindanao, Southern Philippines Leo Manuel B. Estaña1*, Joseph E. Acosta2, Nilo B. Oponda3 and John Paul L. Oñez4 1,2,3 Department

of Math, Physics and Computer Science, College of Science and Mathematics, University of the Philippines Mindanao, Mintal, Davao City 8022 Philippines 4Sago Project II.1, College of Science and Mathematics, University of the Philippines Mindanao, Mintal, Davao City 8022 Philippines *Corresponding author. [email protected]

University of the Philippines- Mindanao College of Science and Mathematics Department of Science and TechnologyPhilippine Council for Industry, Energy, and Emerging Technology Research and Development

Background o The Metroxylon sagu Rottb. is a sago palm which is rich in starch and has been a staple food of people in Southeast Asia (Flach, 1997); o Source of medicine (Rajyalakshmi, 2004); o Only few in asia have been utilizing and Malaysia is the top producer of Sago Flour (Flores, 2013); o Abundantly thriving in Mindanao (Santillan et al., 2013); o Hapaxanthic (Orwa et al., 2009) which makes it a good farm crop because it is self-sustaining;

Background o Has four phenological stages and has its maximum harvestable starch at the inflorescence stage (Gusmayanti et al., 2008); o Its physiological age lasts 15-25 years (Flach, 1997; Rajyalakshmi, 2004); o Potential loss of opportunity if left untapped; o The study was conducted in Sago-identified areas in Mindanao to visualize how much is lost for underutilizing the resource;

Materials and Methods o Sago palm confirmed areas in Mindanao (Santillan et al., 2013); o Stratified random sampling technique was used to identify sampling areas; o Ideal total area of transect sampling is 1% of total confirmed area (personal communication with F.S. Jong, 2013) which is about 7 has; o 32 has has been transected; o GPS was used to avoid overlapping of sampling sites;

Materials and Methods o Transect was done by following and imaginary straight line across the sago stands stretching about 100 meters and enumerating the different phenological stages (personal communication with F.S. Jong, 2013); o Sampling sites were categorized in six different environmental conditions (Santillan et al., 2012)

Sago Palm Harvesting Samples

Soil Conditions

Anthropogenic Influence

Disturbed Wet Soil

Undisturbed Sago Palms

Disturbed Dry Soil

Undisturbed Disturbed Waterlogged

Undisturbed

Disturbed Conditions

In Bunawan, Agusan del Sur

In Butuan City, Agusan del Norte

Action Photos

Generalized Map for Soil Moisture Conditions

Sta. Cruz, Davao del Sur was considered to have dry soil conditions for Sago stands based on recent reconnaissance.

Materials and Methods o o o o o o

9 in Sta. Cruz, Davao del Sur; 14 in Governor Generoso, Davao Oriental; 13 in Bislig City, Surigao del Sur; 13 in Tagbina, Surigao del Sur; 9 in Bunawan, Agusan del Sur; and 13 in Prosperidad, Agusan del Sur, which totals to 78 samples.

Materials and Methods o Projection of sago stands was done using a simple mathematical calculation; o Percentages per phenological stage per environmental condition were computed and multiplied to the total area of confirmed stago stands classified by Santillan et al. (2012) and Santillan et. al (2013); o Statistical tests were done to identify significant differences of Sago stands per phenological stage per province and municipality.

Materials and Methods o It was assumed that bole formation stands will survive for the rest of its lifespan for different intervals namely 5.5 – 6 years, 6 – 7 years, 7 – 8 years, 8 -9 years, 9 – 10 years, and 10 – 11.5 years; o The results were used to project the available number of sago stands for FY2015-2018;

Main Findings o undisturbed dry areas have the highest number of stands per hectare of Sago palms in rosette stage with 17,130 per hectare. o disturbed dry areas have the highest number of palms in bole formation stage with an average of 816 stands per hectare o undisturbed dry areas have sago palm density of 367 stands per hectare

Main Findings o For the inflorescence stage, disturbed and submerged areas have an average that is marginally higher than any other environmental with an average of 132 stands per hectare o the undisturbed dry environmental condition possessed the highest number of stands in the fruiting stage.

Main Findings o Agusan del Sur has the highest estimated number of palms for all growth stages and has the largest cover of Sago palms, comprising 95% of the total confirmed Sago palm areas in Mindanao o provinces of Agusan del Sur, Agusan del Norte and Maguindanao have the most number of harvestable Sago palms

Main Findings Phenological Stage (Count) Province Agusan del Sur Agusan del Norte Surigao del Sur Surigao del Norte Davao del Sur Davao Oriental Compostella Valley Davao del Norte Maguindanao Misamis Oriental South Cotabato Sulu Zamboanga Sibugay Total

Rosette 5,500,871 625,734 15,374 1,153 10,501 41,951 3,237 812 165,105 35,010 474 257,679 326 6,658,245

Bole Formation Inflorescence 179,680 13,527 463 25 225 2,219 172 43 5,588 1,852 17 5,522 7 209,340

7,719 314 223 1 5 63 5 2 248 53 1 121 1 8,756

Fruiting 17,869 4,121 109 8 80 267 21 6 478 223 2 1,941 3 25,128

Main Findings o in fiscal year 2014, there is an estimated 8800 harvestable Sago stands located all throughout Mindanao o The location with the highest number of harvestable Sago stands can be found within the municipalities of Bunawan, Veruela and La Paz in the Province of Agusan del Sur amounting to a sum of 7,452 stands

Main Findings o Statistical tests show that only the bole formation Sago stands in the undisturbed environmental condition found in the municipalities of the Province of Agusan del Sur differ significantly o mean number of bole formation Sago stands in Talacogon is significantly higher as compared to the three other municipalities namely: Bunawan, La Paz and Veruela

Main Findings o can be attributed to the fact that Sago stands in the municipalities of Bunawan, Veruela and La Paz are very dense and are thriving in marshy areas where villages are far while in Talacogon, Sago stands are not very dense and are comparatively in nearby surrounding villages o It was found out that the mortality of sago stands in the areas where the sampling in this study was conducted is similar to the observation of Flach (1997)

Main Findings o Using Flach’s observations and assuming eightyear old sago stands survive its entire lifespan the number of candidates for harvest are Fiscal Year

Number of Harvestable Sago Stands

2015 2016 2017 2018

17,128 28,400 37,622 41,372

Conclusion o it is suggested that the availability and sustainability of sago-based starch products are viable o Should sago-based flour production commence, it is suggested that sago palm resources should come from the Province of Agusan del Sur which has approximately 570.3 ha of Sago palm covered areas

Conclusion o it was found out that Agusan del Sur can supply an average of 21 harvestable sago stands per day o Finally, sago palm can be a potential source of income for farmers in Mindanao if the resource is tapped.

Acknowledgement The authors would like to thank the following for the realization of this research: The College of Science and Mathematics of The University of the Philippines Mindanao and the Department of Science and Technology – PCIEERD.

Thank you.

References

Flach, Michiel. 1997. Sago palm. Metroxylon sagu Rottb. Promoting the conservationand use of underutilized and neglected crops. 13. Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research, Gatersleben/International Plant Genetic Resources Institute, Rome, Italy. Flores, D.M. 2009. The green potentials of sago palm and sago starch. National Biotech Week Scientific Forum, NidoFortified Science Discovery Center, SM Mall of Asia. Gusmayanti, E., Machida, T. and Yoshida, M. 2008. A simple model to Sago palm growth.World conference on Agriculture Information and IT. Jong. F. S. (2013). Personal Communication. Visayas State University. Orwa C, A Mutua, Kindt R , Jamnadass R, S Anthony. 2009 Agroforestree Database:a tree reference and selection guide version 4.0 (http://www.worldagroforestry.org/sites/treedbs/treedatabases.asp) Rajyalakshmi, P. 2004. Caryota Palm Sago ó A potential yet underutilized natural resource for modern starch industry. Natural Product Radiance Vol 3(3) May – June 2004. Santillan, J.R., Francisco R.L., Montajes, J.T., & Ignacio, M.E. 2013. Mapping sago habitats and sago suitable sites using optical and radar image analysis and suitability relationships. Department of Science and Technology- Philippine Council for Industry, Energy, and Emerging Technology Research and Development, through University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines. Santillan, M.M., Japitana, M.V., & Apdohan, A.G. 2012. Biophysical, structural, and spectral characterization of sago palm and its environment. Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Council for Industry, Energy, and Emerging Technology Research and Development, through Caraga State University, Ampayon, Butuan City, Philippines.