Oil palms can be distinguished based on the colour of their fruit coats. The two most common types are nigrescens (Nig) and virescens (Vir) (Figure 1). Vir fruits undergo a clear colour change on ripening, making it easier to identify the ripe bunches for harvesting. The fruits of the more commonly occurring Nig palms undergo only minimal change in colour upon ripening, thus, requiring loose fruits as an indicator of bunch ripeness. With the current labour shortage in the Malaysian plantation sector, the time spent on collection of loose fruits can have serious repercussions on productivity in the oil palm industry. In fact, as a result of labour shortage, one of the areas most neglected in harvesting is loose fruit il palms can be distinguished based on the colour of their fruit coats. The two most common types are nigrescens (Nig) and virescens (Vir) (Figure 1). Vir fruits undergo a clear colour Figure 1. Comparison of virescens and nigrescens bunches. collection (Hoong and Donough, 1998), which has been suggested to be one of the main reasons for the decline in oil extraction rate (OER) in Malaysia (Corley and Law, 2001). The commercial objective of reaching the best compromise between obtaining the maximum amount of oil in the bunch and having only a few loose fruits can be realized if the palms in the plantations are virescens.

Main Research: Dr Rajinder Singh