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Abstract: Charcoal production is re-emerging industry. It not only supplies fuel in developing countries, but in recent decades, it has also supplied new multifuctional materials for environmental improvement and agricultural applications  in developed countries. These applications include air dehumidification and deodorisation, water purification and soil improvement using charcoal’s excellent adsoption capacity. Paradoxically, charcoal production might … Read more

Wood-based downstream in Malaysia mostly rubberwood (RW) as their main raw material for manufactured products, and there is high demand particularly from  the panel composite sector. Recently, there was insufficient supply due to high proliferation of such industries in Malaysia. The unsecure supply and price hike of RW has led the panel industries to look … Read more

Malaysia is the second largest producer of palm oil in the world. The major problems faced by the industry are labour and arable land shortages. MPOB has identified genetic engineering as a promising strategy that could be utilised to face the above challenges (Parveex,1998). As shown in other crops, palm oil carotene composition can also … Read more

The MPOB Breeding Information System (MPOB-BIS) was developed for efficient handling of data for oil palm breeding (Figure 1). The integration and sharing of data from various sites are facilitated and made more systematic. MPOB-BIS comprises data entry, record checking, data analysis and data storage. Reports are produced intabular form together with statistical outputs. MPOB-BIS … Read more

MPOB motorised vessel (5-10 litres capacity) for multiplication of oil plam tissue cultures has been develop (Tarmizi et al., 2009) and is being used routinely. It is an economical and practical method for culturing cell aggregates in larger working volumes of liquid media for increased production. However, there is still a need for the vessel to … Read more

Biological control agents (BCA) using fungal antagonists have gained considerable attention as a viable alternative to chemical control (Papavizas,1985). Ganoderma disease can be controlled by many species of beneficial microbes including fungi, bacteria and actinomycetes. In vitro study showed that a pure culture of the endophytic fungus Phlebia GanoEF3 was capable in inhibiting the growth of Ganoderma boninense and effectively used in … Read more

Over the past years, microorganisms have been isolated and tested as biological control agents against diseases caused by soil borne plant pathogens. It was reported (Noor Haida and Idris et al.,2009) that conidial suspension of GanoEF2 has the potential in suppressing Ganoderma infection in oil palm seedlings. A study was conducted to develop Amiphinema GanoEF2 into powder formulation for controlling Ganoderma disease … Read more

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) … Read more

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 … Read more

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 … Read more