The Oil Palm Industry in Malaysia: Thriving With Transformative Technologies

Abstract

Arriving at this milestone after an illustrious century, the growth from an ornamental palm to a multibillion dollar commodity crop in Malaysia has been a remarkable journey for oil palm. From its humble beginnings in Malaya as a monoculture plantation crop in 1917, it has grown to occupy over 5.7 million hectares of land space by 2016, demonstrating the impact the crop has had on the country's economy over the last 100 years. Its importance has led to many initiatives being implemented with a concerted effort to effectively develop and safeguard the posterity of the industry. In treasuring the past, engaging the present and charting the future, this review reflects briefly on the direction the industry has taken to reach this present state. The foresightedness of early players in the industry has helped thrust the industry forward by systematically building a rich resource within the country. As the industry matures, it is only natural for challenges to surface and there is a constant drive to manage public perception and to stay sustainable in order to remain competitive. In this respect, oil palm has followed in the footsteps of other crops in decoding its genome and simultaneously answering some long-standing questions about the biology of the oil palm. Efforts have also been devoted to automate and mechanise the industry as a solution to address the labour supply issue. Midstream and downstream sectors have experienced similar transformations in their operations as well. Essentially, the employment of these so-called transformative technologies which are the essence of the 4 th Industrial Revolution are comparatively still at its infancy for this industry. However, as precision agriculture gains prominence and in keeping to Malaysia's 2050 national transformation aspirations, we envisage that these disruptive technologies will be the driver of innovations in all sectors, especially oil palm.

In silico characterization and expression profiling of the diacylglycerol acyltransferase gene family (DGAT1, DGAT2, DGAT3 and WS/DGAT) from oil palm, Elaeis guineensis

“…The African oil palm, Elaeis guineensis, is the most important global vegetable oil crop in terms of both yield efficiency (tonnes oil/hectare) and overall volume of production [1][2][3]. Oil palm fruits contain two types of storage oil located respectively in the fleshy mesocarp tissue of the fruit and the triploid endosperm tissue of the seed kernel.…”

Oil palm survival under climate change in Malaysia with future basal stem rot assessments

“…The incidences of BSR were assessed as postulated schemes given that projected climate change is likely to result in more disease of oil palm and highly stressed oil palms. The incidences of disease were determined by (a) considering the extent to which BSR would change at each time point because of altered climate for oil palm growth and (b) attributing a plausible scenario of a 3% increase in BSR every 10 years to take into account the virulence of G. boninense (Kushairi et al, 2017;Paterson, 2019aPaterson, , 2019bPaterson et al, 2013Paterson et al, , 2015Paterson et al, , 2017Rival, 2017). The degree of change of suitable climates and oil palm mortality for the whole country of Malaysia were obtained from…”

Segregation of oil palm fruit ripeness using color sensor

“…In the palm oil industry, Malaysia is the second largest global producer after Indonesia and it has been a major economic source for the country for the past few decades. Palm oil cultivation plan was started in 1960s to reduce Malaysia's dependence on rubber and tin under the government's diversification program [3], [4]. Malaysia also became the largest palm oil exporter in the world during the same period.…”

“…Based on statistics, up to 2016, the plantation area of palm oil has increased to 57,400 km2 in all Malaysian states as shown in the Table 1[4]. Plan oil plantation area in Malaysia by state in 2016…”