27/06/2011 (Bernama) - Cantas, the oil palm motorised cutter developed by the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) to increase harvest productivity, will be commercialsed by Nafas Jentera Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of the National Farmers Organisation.

"We are looking at mass production," said Abbu Backer Abdullah, the company's manager for sales and technical.

Initially, about 2,000 to 2,500 units of the improved version of Cantas would be produced at a plant in Petaling Jaya.

"Production will start by end of this year and we are looking into producing 5,000 units annually," he told Bernama at the recent MPOB Transfer of Technology Seminar 2011 in Bangi.

"We have plans to have two more assembly plants, namely in Prai and Alor Setar," he said, adding that Nafas Jentera was currently working with six local and two overseas vendors to manufacture parts for Cantas.

Abbu Backer said the new hand-held tool is powered by a 1.3 horse power 2-stroke petrol engine and the engine would be supplied by Motosikal Dan Enjin Nasional Sdn Bhd (Modenas).

He said demand for Cantas would always be there as estates and even smallholders were now more concerned about their harvesting cost and productivity.

Abdul Razak Jelani who invented Cantas, said the new version of Cantas would be able to reach 20 feet harvesting height.

He said several studies had shown that Cantas was able to increase harvesting productivity by about 80 per cent to 3.2 metric tonnes per man a day compared to using a manual sickle.

"It also reduces requirements for workers by about 50 per cent which means for every unit of Cantas used, we can reduce one worker," he said.

Abdul Razak said it was estimated that 80 per cent of field workers in plantations were foreigners and of which, 90 per cent were harvesters.

"The advantage of using Cantas should be seen in the longer term. Apart of reducing the cost of hiring them, it would also reduce social problem that is always associated with them," he said.

Cantas has been patented in several countries including Indonesia, Thailand, Costa Rica, Colombia and Brazil.

The improved version cutting head called MK-III++ would be priced not more than RM4,000, said the inventor.