Harvesting of fresh fruit bunches (FFB) is a tedious and time-consuming process. It needs experience and skill for harvesting FFB. The harvesting process involves identifying the ripe bunch, removing subtending fronds, locating the stalk and finally cutting the bunch. This is carried out traditionally using a chisel attached to a short steel pole for short palms and sickle attached to aluminium or bamboo pole for tall palms. In view of the labour shortage in Malaysia, the harvesting process should be simplified and mechanized. The current planting material has short stalk length of 10-15 cm, embedded between frond axil and the trunk. This poses difficulty in reaching and cutting the stalk either manually or mechanical. For ease of harvesting, it has been recommended that the minimum stalk length for harvesting with a mechanical cutter is 20 cm (Ahmad Hitam and Solah Deraman, 2001).

Main Research: Noh Ahmad