Sarawak unveils mechanised oil palm harvester ‘Lipan’, addresses labour shortage, efficiency

MIRI (Oct 9): Sarawak Plantation Berhad (SPB) has developed a mechanised oil palm harvester called the “Lipan” that would revolutionised the oil palm industry in the region.

Sarawak Premier Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg said this is the way forward to address labour shortages while increasing productivity and efficiency.

“Earlier, I witnessed how this machine efficiently harvests fresh fruit bunches (FFBs) using remote control, collecting the fruits at speed and placing them into a bin.

“I timed the process, it takes just two minutes to harvest and load 1.2 tonnes,” he said during the launch of the Lipan at the Subis Plantation today.

He said relying on manual labour would be impractical due to the heavy work, making mechanisation essential for the industry’s future success.

At the same time, he said that the mechanisation in the oil palm industry would also address the long-standing issue of labour shortage, as Sarawak has always on foreign labours.

“When the Indonesian side develops their own industries, they cannot spare their labour with us, because firstly, they create employment in their country whereby the wages are comparable to us.

“Considering these two factors, I think they would prefer to work in their own country, thus we got problem – shortage of labour,” he said.

Another issue of depending on human labour is the time taken to process applications for foreign labour, he said, adding that sometimes it would take up to eight months for the Immigration Department to process the paperwork.

“These processes take at least eight months, so much so we got complaints from the industry. Why take so long? But then, you have to comply with the law. So, that becomes another problem,” Abang Johari said.

Additionally, he said mechanisation would not only resolve labour shortages, but also increase productivity as human errors like damaged fruit bunches are minimised.

“If we use human labour, the process of collecting bunches often leads to breakage, affecting productivity. With machines, we are more efficient,” he said, adding that the Lipan has the capability to harvest 300 FFBs per day.

At the same event, Abang Johari proposed further innovation by SPB, suggesting that additional arms could be added to the machine to cut the oil palm leaves while harvesting bunches.

“You can recycle the leaves into biomass, meaning there is no wastage. In fact, you could generate additional revenue for SPB.

Moreover, you could even set up your own power plant to produce electricity for domestic consumption from biomass,” he suggested.

Meanwhile, Sarawak Plantation Agriculture Development Sdn Bhd’s executive chairman Datuk Amar Abdul Hamed Sepawi said that the machine had gone through many tests and innovation since 2015.

He revealed that after three years of failures, SPB, with the technical expertise of a partner from China, made a breakthrough in December 2018 by designing a cutter that successfully harvested FFBs.

“Initially, the prototype machine could only cut 20 bunches per person per day. Improvements were made to overcome design limitations, including the incorporation of remote control to facilitate easier positioning of the cutter on the tree,” he said.

Abdul Hamed said although the prototype managed to cut, it was still not 100 per cent effective.

“Further improvement was made to the prototype, he said, which resulted in the design of the H-cutter in Dec 2018 which is the ‘holy grail’ that we managed to put together the three in operation by one machine with one person was made possible,” he said.

The machine now is capable of harvesting 38 bunches per hour which is equivalent to 300 bunches per day.

Abdul Hamed further said that with an average bunch weight of 10kg per fruit bunch, this equates to the productivity of three tonnes per day.

Also present at the launch were Deputy Minister in the Premier’s Department (Labour, Immigration and Project Monitoring) Datuk Gerawat Gala; Deputy Minister for Public Health, Housing and Local Government Datuk Dr Penguang Manggil; and Deputy Minister for Women, Childhood and Community Development Datuk Rosey Yunus.