Invent machine tools suitable for country's landscape: Uggah

PUTRAJAYA: The future machine tools and methods to be developed for the oil palm industry should be more adaptable to soil conditions and terrain, comfortable, safe, use green energy and semi-automatic to attract more locals to work in the plantations.Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister, Datuk Seri Douglas Uggah Embas, said the machines should be built to accommodate the narrow terraces and difficult terrain common to Malaysia's landscape.

"The current mechanisation system needs to be further advanced to meet the future challenges.

"I believe that the harvesting tool and fruit evacuation techniques to be developed soon will probably be robotic in nature that will achieve optimum output and capitalise on advanced materials and technology," he said.

Uggah said this in his address at the Oil Palm Mechanisation 2014 seminar in Bangi near here Tuesday.

SPONSORED CONTENT

Sabah revenue hits RM6.97 billion: Hajiji says GRS State Government may see full term

Kota Kinabalu: The Sabah Government continued its momentum in managing the economy in line with the commitment and spirit of the Sabah Maju Jaya (SMJ) when it posted record high state revenue of RM6.973 billion last year.

The text of his speech was read by Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) director-general Datuk Dr Choo Yuen May.

He said failure to fully implement mechanisation in the plantation industry was mainly due to the non-systematic and non-concentrated approach of looking at the problems in totality and in a multi-disciplinary manner.

"The advances in field mechanisation are also hindered by the non-availability of suitable prime movers to suit the local terrain," he said.

The minister said the MPOB has made breakthroughs in developing farm machineries that were being used by the plantations with the establishment of the Farm Mechanisation Centre.

The MPOB's efforts in inventing and developing farm machineries had so far resulted in the development of over 35 technologies and several of them had already been commercialised, he said.

Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.

Daily Express Malaysia

Uggah said the palm oil industry was still dependent on labour, particularly in the estates, despite the improvements and availability of machineries.

As of September this year, the total workforce in the oil palm plantations was 451,728 workers, of which foreigners made up 352,970, mostly working as harvesting and fruit evacuation operators, he said. – Bernama

Try 1 month for RM 18.00

Try 1 month for RM 18.00

Try 1 month for RM 18.00