MALAYSIAN PROIRITY TO ENHANCE OIL PALM INDUSTRY

THERE ARE FOUR PRIORITY AREA to enhance oil palm industry in Malaysia identified. The prominent palm oil experts and scientists converged in Bangi recently to discuss and find practical solutions to improve the industry's efficiency, yield performance, sustainability and food safety and quality. During the two-day Mini Programme Advisory Committee (PAC) meeting, the members comprising eminent scientists and experts in the oil palm industry from within and outside Malaysia, focused on four priority areas namely food safety and quality, sustainable development, mechanisation and automation, and yield performance in order to meet the global demand of palm oil. With expertise and vast knowledge in the oils and fats, they looked in detail into strategic research projects and issues such as sustainable development and finding practical solutions to reconcile differences between the industry and the critics. This article in "Anim Agriculture Technology" blog rewrite about the four priority areas to enhance oil palm industry in Malaysia as reported by NST.

They also provided advices to researchers on R&D solutions, development of better planting materials, ways to address labour shortage issues, the development of new uses of palm oil, introduction of higher specifications of crude palm oil with separate branding and value enhancement from by-products.  The PAC was formed since the establishment of MPOB with the aim of obtaining the views and opinions of experts in the field related to oil palm development to improve the achievement of oil palm research. To improve efficiency in the oil palm plantations, PAC members are finding ways to effectively design and develop revolutionary technologies and innovations for upstream operations. This includes innovative ways to harvest and process oil palm fruits and enhancing mechanisation, precision agriculture and automation MPOB has developed more than 40 types of machinery and mechanised equipment for the use of plantation operations including oil palm harvesting tools. We also looked into ways to improve yield performance as the national average yield has remained stagnant in comparison with other vegetable crops although the production of palm oil has increased over the years, there is a need to implement advanced biotechnological, breeding and cloning tools that will enable the development of superior planting materials, which will improve disease resistance, higher oil quality traits, resilient to climate change and most importantly, increase yield. We need to adopt the best agronomic practices to further improve efficiency and productivity. On sustainable development, our focus areas are environmental sustainability, value addition and socioeconomics issues. Various issues and concerns have been raised concerning land-use change, biodiversity and conservation efforts, deforestation as well as pollution of water, air and land. The livelihood of smallholders is also impacted by the increasingly new or stringent regulations and certifications on sustainability, Good Agricultural Practices, and hence, they face difficulties in meeting the demand of the industry. We are assessing a well-balanced approach to fulfil the sustainability requirement for the oil palm industry. The meeting also discussed about the R&D solutions and recommendations to mitigate the 3-monochloro-propanediol esters (3-MCPDE) and glycidyl esters (GE) issues. MPOB has carried out many studies and trials to address the processed contaminants related to 3-MCPDE and GE in palm oil. The European Commission's proposal for different levels for 3-MCPD esters; 1.25 ppm for soft oils including palm kernel oil and 2.50 ppm for other oils including palm oil is a discrimination to palm oil as it would create an impression that palm oil has lower quality and inferior to soft oils. The issues and projects on the four areas of the country's oil palm industry – sustainable development, food safety and nutrition, mechanisation and automation and yield performance will be addressed immediately in order to improve efficiency and productivity of the oil palm industry. The writer original is Dr Ahmad Parveez Ghulam Kadir, the director-general of Malaysian Palm Oil Board. Thanks..

By,

M Anem,

Putrajaya,

Malaysia.

(May 2021).