The biofertiliser, ‘microbial inoculants’ comprised of microbial inoculants or assemblages of living microorganisms which exert direct or indirect benefits on plant growth and crop yield through different mechanisms (Fuentes-Ramirez and Caballero_mellado,2005). It can be generally defined as preparations containing live or latent cells of efficient strain of nitrogen-fixing, phosphate solubilising (either bacteria, fungi or algae) […]

Biological control agents such as endophytic bacteria have gained significance in suppressing and controlling plant disease. Endophytes have been isolated from several hosts, such as oil palm (Zaiton et al., 2007) and banana (Pan et al., 1997). The capability of colonising host tissue has made endophytic bateria valuable as a tool to improve crop performance. The efficacy […]

Biological control is among the options apart from fungicides in controlling phytopathogens. Many species of microorganisms including actinomycetes, bacteria and fungi have the ability to be an effective control agent of plant disease. The use of Strptomyces genus as biological control agent of Ganoderma disease is of interest. The Strptomyces genus in actinomycetes group showed a high inhibition percentage towards Ganoderma boninense in vitro […]

Loose fruits are currently collected by hand picking or raking. This technique is not only labour demanding and time-consuming but also tedious. The collection process requires the worker to squat and stand up repeatedly, which cause fatigue. On the average, the time taken for the worker to collect loose fruits is about 28% from the […]

It is a challenging to task to evacuate bunches from oil palm planted on peat or soggy areas. Apart from low bearing capacity of the peat, undecomposed or semi-decomposed logs along the harvesting paths require a specially designed vehicle to tackle this problem. The new concept vehicle is specifically built for infield collection on peat […]