3 research outputs found
Not Available
Not AvailableThe disposal of oil palm trunk (OPT) congregated
from old and senile plantations has been pointed out
as one of the major constraints during land clearing
process with respect to cost and drudgery involved.
Traditionally, the existing practice followed by farmers
includes excavation using crawler type excavator
(JCB), followed by dragging and dumping in the
peripherals of the plantation. Realizing the nutrient
status of OPT, their disposal difficulties and to devoid
other environmental issues, a chipping bucket attachment
was fabricated for the same model excavator
to enhance easy fragmentation and rapid in situ decomposition
of the congregated OPT. The chipping
bucket method effectively minimized the cost of land
clearance by 24% compared to the existing practice
followed by farmers. To estimate the cost of clearance
per unit palm, an equation was derived using palm
height and chipping time. The equation obtained was
validated for significant R2 value (0.923). The equation
thus derived would help farmers as well as excavator
operators in estimating land clearance cost for the
standing oil palm plantations. This machine effectively
reduced the trunk disposal cost from 1.54 to 1 time
compared to the existing land clearance method.Not Availabl