Written by Mohd Anuar Amirkadra, MPOCC

The Malaysian palm oil industry has been plagued by labour shortages, particularly in the harvesting of fresh fruit bunches (FFB), and the situation worsened when the unprecedented Coronavirus hit the globe at the end of 2019 and began to threaten the world's food supply. Due to the closed border and the country's policy at the time, neighbouring countries like Indonesia and Bangladesh were unable to provide Malaysia with labour. According to Atto (2010), returning Indonesian workers did not return due to the expanding oil palm industry in Indonesia, which provides more employment opportunities and higher wages than Malaysia.

In addition, the Malaysian government has announced a new policy that will limit the expansion of oil palm plantations to no more than 6.5 million hectares by 2023. According to the Economic and Industry Development Division of the MPOB, the total area of oil palm plantations in Malaysia in 2021 is 5,733,731 hectares. There is still space for new oil palm planting. However, it must comply with the new requirements of the revised MSPO standards, which prohibit the conversion of natural forest, protected areas, and areas with high conservation values after December 31, 2019, unless approved by the state authority with jurisdiction over land matters.

This article discusses on mechanisation replacing human labour in the palm oil industry and MSPO supports toward this direction. Considering these issues and challenges to the Malaysian commodity, the only area for growth and expansion of this sector is technological advancement that goes beyond mechanisation and yield improvement by producing the best clones of oil palm seeds.

The government has allocated RM60 million to the Mechanisation and Automation Research Consortium of Oil Palm for agricultural mechanisation technology research and commercialisation (MARCOP). MARCOP was established to reduce reliance on foreign labour in the palm oil industry and to develop technologies and innovations for increased productivity and efficiency via automation. MARCOP is supported by a grant from the Malaysian government and the Malaysian oil palm industry. Increase in the labour ratio for FFB cutting is one of the strategy targets for research and development of mechanisation.

In 2020, Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO), a national mandatory palm oil certification scheme, became obligatory. MSPO encourages opportunities for continuous improvement without compromising human rights and environmental protection. This may present Malaysia with an opportunity to promote practises that combine sustainability and productivity.

The oil palm cutter (Cantas) is one of the machines introduced to the Malaysian palm oil industry. According to Abdul Razab Jailani, MPOB has received both positive and negative comments. A majority of respondents agreed that a motorised oil palm cutter expedites the harvesting process, increases productivity, and decreases worker demands. However, research should be conducted to address the machine's drawbacks, including the safety aspect.

Under MSPO, safety in the workplace is mandatory, and it is the employee's and employer’s responsibilities to implement safe work practises. The operator must be provided with all the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) necessary for operating the machine, and the employer must establish the standard operating procedure for the work (SOP).

Drone is another tool that has been integrated into high-tech software and is widely used in the oil palm industry at present. This device has been modified for use in supervision, particularly for monitoring the progress of replanting or immature fields. It has also been used for spraying work, locating vacant points, monitoring undesirable activities such as open burning around the plantation, and monitoring potential oil palm fruit theft points. The device will benefit the company and reduce not only manual labour, but also chemical hazards to the workers who performed the work manually.

As palm oil is the country's most valuable crop, Malaysian research and development should also examine robotics or drones, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and digitalisation in this industry. Adoption of technologies by the industry may arouse locals' interest in working in this field, which is synonymous with 3D jobs (dirty, dangerous, and difficult). MSPO policy's first criterion of principle one (1) of the Standard expressed for this continuous improvement that will demonstrate the company's commitment to providing the best sustainable practises for its employees and customers.