The economic potential of sago palm for the people of Kuala Penyu / Shirly Kintuan

The purpose of this project paper is to study on The Economic Potential of the Sago Palms for the People of Kuala Penyu. In the olden days, sago palms were of great value to the people. Everybody who had a plot of land would have a small cluster of sago palm on it. The luckier ones had acres of them of their land. Sago palms were precious then, especially when a long drought occurs or an overly heavy rain fell. That was when paddy gets destroyed and the people had to depend on other food sources. Usually the people had yams and sweet potatoes in their garden or they would scour the jungle for wild taro, however, those would run out and they would turn towards the sago palm for food. Sago palm trees have a lot of other uses. The palm fronds are very good for making roofs. They are sewed together tightly and placed together on the roofs. The effect is; cool during sunny days and warm during rainy days. The fronds stems are quite big and almost round-ish and as such it is very good for making walls. The bark of the trunk can also be made into floorings and walls but most people prefer the stems. Besides getting starch from it, one can also gather delicacies such as grubs. They taste like salty melted butter with a dash of cheese wrapped in thin skin. Sago is actually starch extracted from the pith of sago palm stems and is food to the people of Sabah, especially the Kadazandusuns. This research will study if sago palm and its other products can contribute to the economics of people of Kuala Penyu and factors affecting the growth of this plant within Kuala penyu.