The comparative growth study on sago palm, which consisted of determining the population density, the palm height, the diameter at the ground level and the number of leaves, in the quadrates of the cultivation field of Alubijid, Mindanao, Philippines, Dalat, Sarawak, Malaysia and Tobimeita, Sulawesi, Indonesia was performed from 1992 to 1999. The mean population density of sago palm, having no stem development, but pseudostem with more than 5 cm in diameter, in Alubijid (alluvial soils; Fluvisols) was 3025-3800 palms per ha in 1998 and 3825-4600 palms per ha in 1999. These figures showed higher population density than those recorded in Dalat of Sarawak (tropical peat soils; Histsols) and Tobimeita of Sulawesi (alluvial soils; Fluvisols) where the farmers produced the starch from the stem of sago palm. The sago palms have no clear stem development in the study quadrates of Alubijid, because the farmers do manage few control of the sucker numbers to grow the leader palm in the cluster after a fire in 1993. The mean palm diameter at the ground level in Ajubijid ranged from 24.8 to 31.7 cm in 1998 and 25.7 to 28.1 cm in 1999, which indicated smaller figures than those in Dalat and Tobimeita. The mean number of living leaves varied from 5.1 to 6.3 per palm in 1998 and 5.5 to 5.7 per palm in 1999, smaller number of leaves than those in Dalat and Tobimeita, concluding that the farmers in Alubijid manage to cut and remain at least upper three or four living leaves to produce the thatch every three months.

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 A social economic survey on sago palm related activities was carried out at Tebing Tinggi Island of the Riau Province, Indonesia. The area of sago palm cultivation and the number of sago processing factories increased steadily from 1990 to 1998, to 27,715 hectares and 60,342 tons/yr respectively. The average size of each smallholder garden is about 11 hectares. Sago palms in these gardens take 12 years to attain maturity and about 26 palms are harvested per hectare per year. In eighty-six percent of the surveyed gardens, sago palms were sold a few years prior to palm maturity, under a unique system known locally as the ‘pajak’ or ‘advancing selling’. Harvesting is normally carried out by contract, with all the harvesting costs borne by the buyers or the owners of processing factories. On average, the costs of harvesting and transportation to factory are about 21,000 Rupiah (US$ 2.8) per palm. In almost all the processing factories, untreated water is used for processing. Sago piths are rasped with nail studded rotating drum driven by diesel engine. The rasped pith is collected in a water-containing tank equipped with a mechanised stirrer. Starch is released by vigorous stirring and the extracted starch is recovered by filtration and sedimentation. The monthly starch production capacity of each factory range from 56 to 350 tons and the starch is sun-dried before exporting to Cirebon in Java.

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 P.T. National Timber & Forest Products (NTFP) initiated a 20000-hectare self-financed commercial sago palm (Metroxylon sagu Rottb.) plantation in 1996. It is established on deep peat of about three meters in depth, at Tebing Tinggi Island in the Riau Province of Indonesia. About 8000 hectares have now been completed and continued development of the plantation is progressing steadily at about 2000 hectares per year. The sago palms are cultivated as a non-swamp land crop. An extensive canal system divides the plantation into rectangular planting blocks of 50 hectares. Dams are built at appropriate places to regulate the soil water table to about 20 to 50 centimeters below the soil surface. A combination of rails, roads and canals is used for work realization, supervision, transportation of farm inputs and outputs.
 Vegetative offshoots (suckers) are collected as the planting material. They are nursed on floating rafts until the emergence of new roots and fronds before they are transplanted. A square spacing pattern of ten meters is adopted for field planting. Trimming of leaflets to reduce transpiration is carried out when suckers are planted during dry seasons. Census and replacements of dead suckers are carried out at three and six months after planting. In the field, indigenous fern species serve as natural soil cover. Weeding along the planting rows is carried out twice a year, with fertilizers applied immediately after weeding. Sucker growths in each palm cluster are regulated stepwise, so that only one sucker is allowed to further its development in a desired interval of 18 to 24 months.
 The plantation is divided into phases of 1000 hectares, each equipped with adequate infrastructure and manpower to carry out routine operations rather autonomously. In the past four years, the infrastructure system has adequately facilitated various field operations. Concurrent agronomic practices and soil water table management have enabled satisfactory growth and development of the sago palms.

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