PSU Promotes Planting “Nipa Palm” in Deserted Shrimp Farms in Pak Phanang

Land once used for shrimp farming in Thailand has been rehabilitated by the planting of Nipa Palm trees. The project, initiated by a researcher at Prince of Songkla University, has shown that the trees can give high yields of sugar which can be converted into alcohol and used as an alternative energy source.

Assoc. Prof. Noparat Bamroongrugsa, Ph.D., an expert of the Marine and Coastal Resources Institute, Prince of Songkla University has studied the use of “Nipa Palms” that grow abundantly in Pak Phanang District, Nakhon Si Thammarat Province because it is ecologically and economically a valuable plant. Locals use Nipa palm sap to make sugar, vinegar, and alcohol; its leaves to warp tobacco for smoking, and to make thatched roofs; the trunk to make firewood.

During the last 20 years, the areas of approximately 20,000 Rai in Pak Phanang District, Nakhon Si Thammarat Province where “Nipa palms” used to grow were turned into “shrimp farms” as locals could earn more from shrimp farming. Presently hundreds of thousand Rai of shrimp farms in the provinces of Nakhon Si Thammarat and Songkhla are deserted because they cannot be used for agriculture due to the salted soil which will take decades to become economic-plant-growing land again. However, from the study, it was found that “Nipa palms” can grow well in deserted shrimp farms, and alcohol from “Nipa palms” can be used as alternative fuel during the time when energy is scarce.

The experiment of Nipa palm planting in deserted shrimp farms at Khanap Nak Sub-district, Pak Phanang District, Nakhon Si Thammarat Province revealed that 4-7 year-old Nipa palms could yield about one can or 25 kilogram of sugar per day in a planting area of two Rai from which farmers could earn about 1,000 Baht a day, or even more if it is distilled into alcohol. If farmers have more land, they can harvest the crop alternatively and earn from it all year around. “Nipa palms” can produce shoots and remain growing for a hundred years.

“Deserted shrimp farms are commonly found in Songkhla Province and Nakhon Si Thammarat Province and they should be used to plant Nipa palms like those in Khanap Nak Sub-district where deserted shrimp farms have returned to near-normal conditions because “Nipa palms” absorb salt. If the government tries to solve the problems, the areas could be used to plant rice again in the near future”, said Assoc. Prof. Noparat Bamroongrugsa.

Various countries have shown interest in this study about “Nipa palms”, especially Kansai Electric Power Company, an electricity generating company in Osaka, Japan that cooperated in the study to make use of “Nipa palms” as alternative energy. The company studied about biogas mass dealing with collecting carbon dioxide, analyzing sugar, and capacity in producing alcohol. The next phase of the study will be on finding mechanisms to make Nipa palms yield more sap that flows better, and improving the quality of Nipa palm sugar. Students from the University of Tokyo came to the area to study about the species of Nipa palm that grow in this area while not many Thais are interested in it yet.

On February 11, 2011, Ms. Midoriko Nagasaki from the science and medical section of the Asahi Shimbun, a well-known newspaper in Japan, came to interview about the use of “Nipa palms” and planting “Nipa palms” in deserted shrimp farms to publish in the Japanese media.

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