13/04/2010 (The Star Online) - MUCH hope has been placed on increasing the mechanisation of palm fruit harvesting techniques and reducing foreign labour in the country’s robust oil palm industry.

Unfortunately, efforts to introduce a workable and efficient mechanised harvester remain futile, leading to deep dependence on foreign workers among many oil palm estates nationwide.

Labour for harvesting is now the biggest constraint to the future competitiveness of the nation’s key plantation sector.

More so when there is an immediate need to address the acute labour shortage in the sector following the freeze on Bangladeshi workers and reduced labour supply from Indonesia.

It is also ironic that Malaysia, renowned for its highly advanced research and development (R&D) into oil palm planting techniques, seems to be a bit hesitant to undertake intensive R&D commercialisation to come out with efficient mechanical harvesters for the industry.

Having said that, at one point there was a motorised harvesting pole (MHP) introduced for harvesting oil palm fruits. While the gadget holds potential, some say much research on its real use needs to be done.

Priced at RM5,000 per unit, the gadget apparently is too expensive, especially for smallholders. Other minus factors include the five-metre maximum reach which is too low, covering only 40% of the planted areas, and a short lifespan about five months.

Perhaps, by making some adjustments, i.e. making it more affordable by pricing it below RM2,000, doubling its reach from the current height, and extending its lifespan to over two years, the MHP could turn out to be a useful and efficient gadget for harvesting.

Some trial results have shown that with mechanisation, the workforce for harvesting could be reduced by half, land-to-labour ratio could be doubled, productivity tripled and the harvesting cost cut by 75%.

Productivity could be increased depending on the crop yield and the estates’ topography, whether flat, undulating, hilly slopes or in peat areas.

Plantation workers (harvesters), therefore, could get more income while the estates could boost production besides reducing the high cost of production due to significant labour reduction.

However, some feel that commercialisation efforts should not be institutionalised in the R&D establishment. Commercialisation and marketing of R&D findings are specialised areas and cannot be left to scientists alone.

Perhaps another way is to encourage the Government and industry players to set up a dedicated mechanised harvesting fund for the oil palm sector.

One international palm oil expert even suggested collection of industry funds and inviting bids from the world’s leading robotics institutes. Then Malaysia can select maybe two to compete in designing the best and most efficient mechanical harvesters.

It is high time local industry players looked seriously at mechanised harvesting to boost the country’s average crude palm oil yield which has been stagnant at only four tonnes per hectare for the past 20 years.