Development of an experimental rig for soil and crop residues management

The development of an experimental rig was performed to modified blades geometry and lifting angles for the suitability of pulverization of oil palm fronds to reduce torque, noise and vibration and fuel consumption during field operations. The experimental rig and the blades were attached to the soil bin and the transducers were connected to the data acquisition module .The blades were attached to the blade carrier and the appropriate operated speed was selected via the control box. Three level of mulching depth (10, 15 and 30 cm) were compared based on the level of pulverisation on the four blades. Sieve analysis was carried out to determine the level of pulverisation. The statistical analysis is based on ANOVA test of significance based on completely randomized design (CRD). The model showed significance (P>0.05) on the depth of operations but insignificant between the blades and pulverisation level and attributable with the design model having R2=0.44. It is expected that more models are needed to test the fitness of the designed blades

Performance of mechanical weeding levels on yield and vegetative component of rice under the system of rice intensification (SRI) at Tanjung Karang irrigation scheme, Malaysia

Among the practices of System of Rice intensification is the intensive mechanical weeding need at 10 to 12 days intervals up to 40 days after transplanting (DAT) or canopy closure. This practice aerates the soil, adds biomass and increase yield. This study was carried out to evaluate the effect of levels of mechanical weeding using four different locally fabricated rotary weeders on the yield and vegetative components of rice under the System of Rice Intensification at Tanjung Karang Irrigation Scheme of Malaysia. Results indicated that mechanical wedding levels had a significant effect on vegetative paddy height at P (0.05) level with 60.05 cm as the highest average vegetative height obtained at three levels of rotavation (mechanical weeding) using treatment D. The analysis of variance of the yield from the treatments indicates a significant difference in yield with increase in the levels of mechanical weeding with 13.1 tons/Ha being the highest obtained from treatment D (three levels of rotavation) at 30DAT. The lack of machine ground clearance hindered weeding up to canopy closure or 40 DAT

Developing a Construction Occupational Safety and Health Risk Assessment Matrix (COSHRAM) with modifying risk factors

Common Risk Assessment Matrix (RAM) is universal and can be apply in any industries. The aims of this paper is to develop a Construction Occupational Safety and Health Risk Assessment Matrix (COSHRAM) which can ideally improve the risk action plan. A new element of modifying factors has been incorporated to systematically justify the residual risks. The COSHRAM was developed on the basis of historical accident data and data collected from the field survey. Six (6) Safety and Health Officer (SHO) divided into three (3) groups were selected to conduct field trials. Each group has conducted risk assessment using both common RAM and COSHRAM. Overall, three (3) types of activities, including twenty-one (21) sub-activities and fifty-nine (59) hazards have been evaluated. Paired t-test showed that result of the assessment between the common RAM and COSHRAM was significantly different (t=17.083, p < 0.05). Therefore, the COSHRAM is statistically acceptable and it resulted in better in terms of estimating the risks than the common RAM

Development of mobile application in assessing commuting accident risk (CommuRisk) amongst commuters at Klang Valley

Introduction: Globally, commuting accident risks are always neglected in an organisation. There is a need to assess the impact of commuting accidents based on sociodemographic, human, vehicle, road, and environmental factors and to find suitable and effective mitigation strategies to alleviate the associated undesirable outcomes. Methods: This research was designed to develop a mobile application to assess commuting accident risk levels using artificial intelligence principles, as we are now in the 21st-century technology era. A total of 216 respondents from private and government industries participated in this study. Besides, to prove the developed application’s effectiveness, the study evaluated the effectiveness of the identified risk factor in determining the level of commuting risks predicted by respondents with the risk level calculated by the mobile application. Results: A major contribution of this paper is the effectiveness and accuracy of a mobile application known as CommuRisk. The app was developed using Android Studio and natively uses Java. There was a significant difference between with and without mobile applications in determining the level of commuting risks, and the effectiveness was proven with a (p-value = 0.001) at a 95% confidence interval with large sample size. Conclusion: Thus, this paper proved the effectiveness and accuracy of a mobile application in calculating risk levels exposed by commuters compared to risk levels predicted by commuters

Food grain losses associated with indigenous storage methods and development of storage facilities for food security

The deterioration of wheat grains in terms of various quality parameters was observed during storage in traditional and designed structures for 12 months. As a result of the laboratory analysis and statistical data evaluation, protein (11.78%), lipid (2.4%), ash (1.76%) and starch (64.87%) were found maximum in grain samples taken from straw-clay bin followed by concrete block bin, ferrocement bin, earthen bin, bulk covered and room type store after 12 months of storage. The highest moisture (15.12%), insect-damage (26%), fungi (25%) and aflatoxin (13.3 μg kg-1) was observed in grains stored in room store followed by bulk covered, earthen bin, ferrocement bin, concrete bin and straw-clay bin

SRI single seedling transplanting implement: an innovative technique to challenges on SRI planting and spacing techniques

In rice production, seedling quality and transplanting potentials stand as a prerequisite for proper completion of rice production for optimum yield. The overall objective of this research was to develop a transplanting implement capable of placing rice seedling singly into the field by dropping with respect to SRI planting conditions. It is aimed at using seedlings established from SRI-tray designed with adjustable spacing options of within and between rows of 25 cm, 30 cm and 40 cm leading to nine SRI spacing options to suite SRI practitioners’ preference. Performance evaluation was based on suitable growing media, planting speed, percentages of single, missing and multiple planting as well as field capacity and field efficiency. The data revealed that the speed of operation at 0.18 m/s reported the highest significance percentage of single planting when subjected to spacing patterns of 25 × 35 cm (84%), 25 × 25 cm (81%), 30 × 30 cm (73%) and 40 × 40 cm (83%). But, a decreasing trend was recorded when the speed increased to 0.45 m/s. The performance recorded were 53%, 56% and 72% on 25 x 35 cm, 25 x 25 cm and 30 x 30 cm spacing patterns respectively with a surprising performance stability of 83% on the 40 × 40 cm. The results on growing media indicated that clay with compost had the highest significance with respect to the weight of seedling (25.3 g) giving the loosening index of 66 seconds and the planting depth of 16 mm. At the speed of 0.18 m/s, the field capacity was 1.29 ha/hr and, the field efficiency was 79.5% but, changed to 1.55 ha/hr and 75% respectively, at the speed of 0.45m/s

Trend in the development of oil palm fruit harvesting technologies in Malaysia

Harvesting oil palm fresh fruit bunches (FFB) on tall oil palm trees is a laborious and hazardous task. Lately, with the escalating problem of labor shortage, the exigent demand to mechanize the harvesting task cannot be overlooked. Over the years, many harvesting methods and technologies have been used and developed to increase the harvesting productivity. This paper reviews the conventional manual harvesting using manual labor, mechanization of harvesting task using harvesting machines as well as research on climbing robots for harvesting FFB in Malaysia. In essence, it provides an overview of the trend in the development of harvesting technologies in Malaysia. Realizing the potential of climbing robots for harvesting, the morphological structures and physical characteristics of oil palm trunks in its natural surroundings are examined closely to identify the challenges in the climbing and harvesting processes. Next, a set of design criteria is introduced to overcome those challenges. In addition, several mechanisms are proposed which play integral parts in enhancing the climbing and harvesting tasks

Adaptive Management Framework for Evaluating and Adjusting Microclimate Parameters in Tropical Greenhouse Crop Production Systems

High operational costs of greenhouse production in hot and humid climate condition due to the initial investments on structure, equipment, and energy necessitate practicing advanced techniques for more efficient use of available resources. This chapter describes design and concepts of an adaptive management framework for evaluating and adjusting optimality degrees and comfort ratios of microclimate parameters, as well as predicting the expected yield in greenhouse cultivation of tomato. A systematic approach is presented for automatic data collection and processing with the objective to produce knowledge‐based information in achieving optimum microclimate for high‐quality and high‐yield tomato. Applications of relevant computer models are demonstrated through case‐study examples for use in an iterative way to simulate and compare different scenarios. The presented framework can contribute to future studies for providing best management decisions such as site selection, optimum growing season, scheduling efficiencies, energy management with different climate control systems, and risk assessments associated with each task

Energy utilization in major crop cultivation

A total of 42 crops were categorized into eleven Indicative Crop Classification (ICC) in accordance to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) as cereal, vegetables, fruit, nut, oilseed crops, root/tuber crops, beverage and spice crops, sugar crops, leguminous crops, fiber crops and Tobacco for the study of energy utilization in their productions. The energy utilization in the production of these selected crops was taken from the literature studies that were conducted from the collection of 120 published journal articles from 2004 to 2017. Among the eleven crop classifications, the energy input for vegetable and melon crops was the highest (73.425 GJ/ha) while energy input for leguminous crops was the lowest (6.13 GJ/ha). Electricity, fertilizer and diesel are the major sources of energy they contributed by 46%, 20% and 14% respectively. The electricity was mostly for the water pumps that were used for pumping of water for the crops in the field. Direct energy contributed by 39.35% of the total energy consumed while indirect energy contributed 45.19%. Renewable energy represented 17% of total energy used while non-renewable energy represented 83%. For cereal crops, fertilizer energy contributed the highest value in the energy input with a value of 617080.0 MJ/ha or 27% of the total input, direct energy contributed 57% of the total energy input and indirect energy is 43% of the total energy, while renewable and nonrenewable energy shared by 19% and 81% of the total energy input, respectively. On the other hand, the average mechanization index level for all crop classifications was calculated to be 0.52, and these indexes varied from 0.18 for spice crops to 0.77 for cereals crops with corn scoring the highest mechanization index of 0.90 while rice has the lowest index of 0.61. Tobacco has the lowest value of the energy ratio by 0.10 while coconut has the highest value of 29.4. Finally, in energy productivity, watermelon has the highest valueof 1.7 kg/MJ while tobacco has the lowest value of 0.03 kg/MJ

The Effect of Owner-Manager’s Safety Leadership and Supervisor’s Safety Roles on Safety Performance in SME Manufacturing

Small and Medium Entrepreneurships (SME) is the backbone of the country economic growth. However, most of workplace accidents in Malaysia come from the SME sector. Considering financial and workforce limitations own by SMEs as compared to huge firms, this fact advocates the scholars and also practitioners of occupational safety and health (OSH) to find suitable and inexpensive approaches in improving safety performance of the SMEs. Based on previous researches, results showed that safety leadership variables have significant influence on safety performance. Besides, supervisor roles in safety also imposed significant effect to safety performance. Thus, study attempted to determine the direct impact of safety leadership (safety concern, safety policy, and safety motivation) played by the owner-managers on safety performance within the SME manufacturers in Selangor, Malaysia. Furthermore, this study also evaluated the effect of supervisor safety roles in mediating the effect of safety leadership and safety performance. The data was collected among 165 SME manufacturing workers from 37 factories and Partial Least Square Structured Equation Model (PSL-SEM) was performed for data analyses. The results indicated that safety leadership in terms of safety concern, safety policy, and safety motivation has significant impact on safety performance and also supervisor safety roles. However, supervisor safety roles do not mediate the relationship between safety concern, safety policy, and safety motivation and safety performance. Furthermore, safety performance variance is 70% explained by safety leadership variables. This results proved the idea of the importance of direct safety management by the owner-managers in elevating level of OSH among SMEs. This research findings also could serve as initial reference for the involving parties to design and establish safety leadership programmes for SMEs owner-managers. This research concluded that considering the limitations and constrains of the SMEs, safety leadership approach delivered by their the owner-managers could be the best way to improve safety performance constraints