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Second FAO Electronic Conference on Tropical Feeds
Livestock Feed Resources within Integrated Farming Systems
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Abstract of sixth paper, from C. Dalibard.

Questions that might stimulate discussion on this topic include:

1. Do you know other examples where palm sap, syrup or sugar
is used for animal feeding?

2. Do you know other palm species that are traditionally
tapped?

3. Do you have information on palm species that are
traditionally tapped in America?

4. Is tapping a practical technology for exploiting palm
trees considering the risks and the labour involved?

5. Are there prospects for tapping palm trees for animal
feeding in your country? Is it a profitable alternative
compared to other present uses such as production of
fresh juice, sugar, alcohol for human consumption?

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THE POTENTIAL OF TAPPING PALM TREES FOR ANIMAL PRODUCTION

Christophe DALIBARD

Animal Production Officer
Feed Resources Group, FAO
E-mail: christophe.dalibard@fao.org

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ABSTRACT

Palm trees have proved to be efficient converters of solar
energy into biomass in most agro-ecological zones of the
tropical world. Most tapped palm trees gives a sap very rich
in sugar (10 to 20%). For several millennia, many species of
palm trees (including coconut) have been used for sugar
production. Highly sophisticated techniques of tapping were
developed through the centuries in Asia, Africa and America.
High yields of sugar were obtained from palms that could
continue for up to a hundred years of production. One of the
main constraints on production in recent times has been the
increasing lack of fuel needed for processing palm sap into
sugar and the price thereof. Nevertheless, since trials of
feeding pigs with fresh sugar palm sap were successfully
initiated in an FAO project in Cambodia, there has been
renewed interest in tapping palm trees for sap to be used as
feed. A thorough review of the literature has shown that
intensive pig rearing based on palm sap has already been
practised by the Indonesians for centuries and was found to be
a very efficient system for intensifying agriculture in some
highly populated islands. In today's economy, developing
animal production using palm sap as the main source of energy
in the diet looks very promising: the land could sustain
higher population densities through the intensification of
crop and animal production within sustainable integrated
systems for small farmers.

KEY WORDS: sugar palm, tapping, sap, livestock, feed

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FAO ELECTRONIC CONFERENCE:
LIVESTOCK FEED RESOURCES WITHIN INTEGRATED FARMING SYSTEMS
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