IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science | 2021
Thermal and Optical Properties of Oil Palm FFB for Optimum Harvest Window Prediction
Abstract
Best practices in oil palm cultivation to improve efficiency are challenging. Enormous capital has been invested in superior seeds, water and fire management, as well as fertilization. However, heavy loses frequently occurred at the time of harvesting. Oil palm fruits grow in dense bunches, called fresh fruits bunch (FFB), containing mass number of fruits. The fruits ripen non-uniformly and formidable to observe visually. Therefore, untimely harvest is unexceptional. Previous studies suggest that camera-aided observation produce more accurate results for determination of FFB ripenes than visual inspection. However, these techniques prone to environment change such as sunlight. In this study we propose the use of hybrid-camera which can observe the FFB in multispectral-regime. The prototype was able to better identify changes in FFB physical and thermal characteristics upon maturation and ripening. The new approach enables better optimum harvest window prediction for FFB with R2 of 0.8344, while previous study can only obtain R2 of 0.7818. The result provides better harvest practice in oil palm industry to improve the overall efficiency of cultivation.