Acceptance Letter - Weed Solut-Ion® (2-Sodium amine) as an Adjuvant for Weed Control in Oil Palm Plantation

• Main Author: Kamalul Adham, Che Ruzlan
• Format: Letter
• Language: English
• Published: ICPPT 2022 2022
• Subjects: S Agriculture (General)
• Online Access: http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/45831/1/Kamalul%20Adham%20bin%20Che%20Ruzlan%20-%20ORAL.pdf; http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/45831/
• Institution: Universiti Malaysia Sarawak

Weed management strategy has to strike a compromise between plants growth competition, crop losses, higher cost of control measures and the need to reduce soil erosion, especially in the tropics with high and intense rainfall. The use of herbicides are preferred in oil palm plantation because of cheap labour cost and superior efficacy compare to manual weeding, and others cultural weeding methods. Currently, the annual costing and budget for herbicides are keep increasing because of high usage and chemical price hikes. In 2021, the weed management cost had increase 39% (RM 208.61/ha/yr) from RM 150/ha/yr. Therefore, FGV has conducted series of studies on Weed Solut-ion® (2-Sodium amine) a novelty herbicides reductant product of organic adjuvant to be mix with any herbicides, and able to reduce herbicide dosage up to 50-70%. Weed Solut-ion® is categorized as inorganic salts adjuvant, with additives that aim to improve the efficiency of herbicidess. Generally, the efficacy trials results showed Weed Solut-ion® is able to reduce chemical herbicide dosage by 50% for circle weeding at immature oil palm ,and reduce by 70% of herbicide dosage at mature palms, interrow weeding (broad leaves) and selective weed control of Clidemia hirta. Thus, the new recommendations have been recommended; 1. Circle weeding at immature oil palm using (1.65 L/Ha glufosinate ammonium + 1.65L/ha Weed Solut-ion®) has given 12% (RM4.12) cost saving/ha/round, 2. Circle and inter row spraying at mature oil palm using (0.9L/ha glyphosate IPA + 22.5g/ha metsulfuron metyl + 0.9L/ha Weed Solut-ion®) had given 21 (RM5.46) cost saving/ha/round, and 3. Selective control of Clidemia hirta using (0.45L/ha triclopyr butotyl + 0.45L/ha Weed Solut-ion® + 25ml/ha adjuvant) had given 19% (RM4.55) cost saving/ha/round. Henceforth, the cost saving benefits of Weed Solut-ion® had been extended for commercial application in selected FGV oil palm plantations. Concurrently, other recommendation for others weed control and combination with pre-emergence herbicides are being evaluated respectively.