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The oil palm industry is very much dependent on manual labour to carry out the operations in estates. Mechanisation has been proven to be one of the strategic ways to improve productivity significantly and reduce workers requirement. It is well recognised that mechanisation of harvesting and the evacuation of fresh fruit bunches (FFB) are the … Read more

Endophytic microorganisms such as arbuscular mycorrhiza fungi (AMF) are among the many effective microorganisms (EM) present in the host of system of various plants; ofthen without ill effects on the plants (Holderness et al.,2000;Sieber,2002). A majority of land plants from symbiotic association with the fungi. Mycorrhizae play a key role for soil microorganisms in the soil-plant … Read more

Vascular wilt of oil palm is caused by a soil-borne fungus, Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. elaeidis (foe). This disease is seriously affecting the oil palm industry in Africa, where yield in some areas have drastically been reduced. Currently, F. oxysporum can be diagnosed up to the species level through a morphological and molecular technique namely, the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). Detection … Read more

The Basal Stem Rot (BSR) disease caused by Ganoderma boninense has caused huge economic losses to oil palm plantations (Roslan and Idris, 2012). The disease can be diagnosed based on the presence of basidiomata of the pathogen on the stem base or frond bases or roots (Idris and Ariffin, 2004). Several technologies have been developed for the … Read more

Composts are produced in some palm oil mills as a waste management method to mitigate greenhouse gas *GHG) emmisions from empty fruit bunches (EFB) and palm oil mill effluent (POME). Vermicomposting has been considered as a method of achieving stabilised compost products (Elvira et al., 1998; gupta and Garg, 2008; Suthar, 2006). Vermicomposting of EFB and … Read more