Current commodities market competition and agriculture regulations are forcing the oil palm industry to seek more competitive management methods to produce palm oil. With the development of geographic information system (GIS), global positioning system (GPS), variable-rate technology (VRT) and remote sensing technology (RS), many oil palm plantations in this country have started adopting precision agriculture (PA) or technologies related to it to improve their productivity and profitability (Wahid et al., 2000). Robert (1997) defined PA as an information and technology-based agricultural management system used to identify, analyse and manage soil spatial and temporal variability within fields for optimum profitability, sustainability and protection of the environment. In other words, the soil has to be treated according to natural rather than artificial boundaries such as blocks or fields.

Main Research: Hj. Wahid Omar