Ablation is the removal of male and female inflorescences and fruit bunches produced during the juvenile period of oil palm
The oil palm ablatool developed by ICAR-Indian Institute of Oil Palm Research, Pedavegi, Andhra Pradesh has been granted the Patent (No. – 393982).
Ablation is the removal of male and female inflorescences and fruit bunches produced during the juvenile period of oil palm (1 to 3 Years). It improves the vegetative growth of the palm by retaining the nutrients which are supposed to be used by the developing inflorescences or fruit bunches. It also improves the drought-resistance capacity of young palms by improving the shoot and root growth, especially, in the low production areas where dry conditions exist.
The ablation tool developed by the institute consists of a long handle of GI Pipe of 5 Ft length. On one end of the pipe, a ‘U’ shaped holder is welded. A sharp-pointed nail is welded at the Centre of the ‘U’ holder.
The operator has to locate the unopened inflorescence to be removed and pushes the ‘U’ holder into the inflorescence. In this process, the sharp needle pierces into the inflorescence and with a small push, the inflorescence gets broken and is hooked like a fish.
The tool can be operated without drudgery at an angle of 680 to the ground level from a distance of 1.3 metre. The average time taken to ablate one inflorescence would be two seconds. On average, in one hour, a person can ablate 125 inflorescences, without removing the green leaves.
