Marker assisted selection (MAS), is now seen as a viable option in oil palm breeding programmes. Increase in the number of trained staff, availability of appropriate genomics tools and infrastructure in many commercial plantation companies have provided the incentive to implement MAS. The most basic application of markers in oil palm breeding is probably testing […]

Efficient harvesting of fresh fruit bunches (FFB) is vital to ensure the FFB are harvested within the recommended harvesting round of 10 to 12 days interval. Manual harvesting (using a sickle or chisel) can only produce about an average of 1 t FFB man-1 day-1 (Azman et al., 2015). Estates are now looking for more […]

MPOB has introduced an oil palm motorised cutter known as ‘Cantas Evo’ that works effectively for palms with harvesting height of less than 7 m. Cantas which is powered by a small petrol engine has been proven to increase harvesting output compared to manual harvesting. Over the past two years, a new generation motorised cutter […]

Fusarium spp. cause diseases in a wide range of host plants. At least 81 of 101 economically important crop plants diseases are caused by Fusarium. Several Fusarium pathogens cause essentially similar symptoms on different crops such as cortical decay of roots, root rot, wilting, yellowing, rosette and premature death on infected plants (Beckman and Roberts, […]

Coconut cadang-cadang viroid (CCCVd) is the smallest pathogen with a size range of 246-401 nt. The viroid is encapsulated, circular and single strand RNA (ribonucleic acid) depending on the host protein for replication (Flores et al., 2005). The lethal coconut cadang-cadang disease caused by CCCVd in Philippines infects the coconut palms and caused a total […]