I am not someone qualify to say what is right or wrong because I do not have experience in agriculture either. Still doing my research and homework. But these are the mindset I'm going to instil myself with.

1) No shortcut mentality, go all out with 100% dedication fulltime untill desirable outcome.
2) Then refine the system for better efficiency on time spent and cost, while achieving higher yield.
3) The system can never be good enough, it's always and always will be the challenge to fine tune the system that work to make it work better and better.

Some of the homework that I did :-

1) Visit the retail market often including pasar, and hypermarket
2) Pay a visit to MOA at putrajaya (I buta buta go there myself) and yes info can get.
3) Ask around those who has experience (very important)
4) Internet research
5) Ask yourself how far are you willing to go to achieve what you want to achieve.
6) Do a proper planning

Finally...

ACTION!
Anymore direction that can be helpful in research and planning that all the sifu here can give more ?

Hi All,

It took me few days to finish all the posts here. It is very interesting and provides me information to deal with the problem I had with my land. I have 2 pieces of land which have been abandoned for quite a long times. My new year resolution is to get myself into agriculture and produce a good result from my lands. I have one constraint is the location of my lands are far from where I stay. I work in KL and the lands are in Johor. I am only able to travel back for 1 day every 2 weeks. Therefore, I hired workers to take care of the land now.

1. 5 acres 6 years old Oil Palm tree.   
Issue
- Weeds
- Pests
- Low production – only able to get 3.1 tones last month. Not able to get previous data. I only know the highest production is about 6 tones.
- Some trees also have infection.

2. 7 acres Fruit farm ( Durian, Langsat, Cempedak)
Issue
- weeds
- pests ( lots of termites )
- durian and cempedak trees have infection.

I will continue to post my journey and photo( how to post pictures?) to battle the issues in my farms.

May I know is there any reference/books/guide available for durian tree? I just planted 35 musang king in the fruit farm 2 months ago, there are 5 trees already said goodbye to me now. 

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Added on January 5, 2012, 7:02 pmi read some oil plantation forum b4, and for 6 ekar can yield 3.1 tons consider ok lo, not too bad lo. As investment ok lo, 3 ton can sell estimate 1.5k ++ right ?

Welcome to the club loongloong3, do spend some time here, and you'll need to decide, whether Agriculture is the direction you want to go. There is up & down (just as with any business) in Agriculture. Do decide and plan properly before you embark on this or any business plan that you have.
Kindly understand that agriculture land is totally different from housing land. Bank loans, appreciation (or depreciation), disposal (when you sell), land condition, maintenance and etc.
As with any business, higher risk, higher return. Exotic / high value corps give high return. You'll need to start from working out what is your amount to service your bank loan, that is cost of land, amount loaned, repayment period. (FYI last few years when I check, agri land max 45% loan, and this is if you have good relation with the bank, maybe get higher if there is a structure).
Yes, there are plants that needs lesser care and there are plants that need more care. You may also mechanize some manual labor. Here we still have some "gotong royong style" (you help me, I help you method).
My personal experience, theft are mostly petty thief. Not serious. Lost about 6 Cavendish sucklings, about 25 grafted rubber trees, some ripe pumpkins. Personally I don't think this warrant any serious consideration as farm gate prices are just very low.
Just as with any business, there is a vast difference in Farm Gate price to Retail price, just like Factory prices vs Retail prices. Every one has their role to play, and everyone has their own set of expenses. Depending how aggressive is you marketing strategy, there are lots of avenue to market/target your produce. Since it's 1~2 acres, you most probably don't need to worry about exporting yet.
Hope these helps.

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Added on January 5, 2012, 8:05 pm

Wow, a go getter.
I guess a work progress schedule (clearing, fixture, irrigation), planting and estimated harvesting schedule (amount & date) shall help you prepare better. Securing a market before that shall also help.

Say, where's your farm? Can visit (even during starting?)

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Added on January 5, 2012, 8:23 pm
Hi Kg Teratai,
Weeds in plantation, we are having good success with Glyphosate Isopropylamine 41% + 2,4-D Butyl Ester 45% + Wetting agent in the rubber plantation.
As for low production, guess you'll need to find out the actual caused. Once rectified you may want to look at EM (effective Microbes / Enzyme).
Guess you are doing alright, since you've already identified your problem, un-like me, when I started, don't even know what is wrong. Just keep working on it.

I post pic by 1st loading it to Photobucket http://photobucket.com/
Hope these helps.

Kg_Teratai:

Ok, let's go one by one. In your first picture of post 961, the hole in the frond bract is made by rhinoceros beetles. The adults normally bore holes into the heart of the palm, close to the crown. Usually the rhino beetle's damage on palms are not too serious, but the wound does allow other more terrible pests and diseases to come in to kill the palm. You need to buy cypermethrin, mix according to the instructions, and spray the "spear" of the palms, i.e. the frond that looks like a "tanduk" in the center of the palm, till the whole thing is drenched. This will kill some of the adults, and deter others from coming back in. However, this only lasts for maybe 2 months at most, so you would likely need to do this again when you notice any further damage. As long as the new fronds that come out don't have holes, you know you are doing ok.

The next two pictures in post 961 show frond damage. There are two possibilities: (i) Mechanical damage due to beetle attack (ii) Nutrition-linked diseases due to deficiency in boron.

Although both are show similar symptoms, I would say the former is the case, i.e. beetle damage. Reason being the subsequent young fronds are not showing disease symptoms. This disease, is colloquially called "crinkled-leaf", and is particularly found in planting of inland alluvials.

But that doesn't mean your palms are not suffering from boron deficiency. If you look carefully, you would notice light-white colored stripes along the leaves mid-rib. This is another symptom of boron deficiency, called "white-stripe". One could avert this by applying 1kg of borate per palm per year, divided into 4 applications every 3 months (i.e. 250g each round). Spread the borate evenly about 30cm away from the trunk base, all around. Take care not to clump the borate in lumps or heaps.

However, given that Tangkak area is largely inland alluvials, I suspect there could be some levels of chlorine deficiency also. You might like to introduce a little salt to the palms, either using normal rock salt (NaCl), or magnesium salt (MgCl). The former is very cheap to get, while the latter kills two birds with one stone: It also provides magnesium to the palms, aside from chlorine.

Aside from that, I'm wondering how often do you do fertiliser applications? The palms look very yellow, and stunted for 6-7 year old palms. They are what, 4 feet tall? Unless you got youself some dumpy materials, that is not normal. Most oil palm planting materials in Malaysia grow by 30-40cm a year, so for 6-7 year old palms, you should be seeing something closer to 5 feet (trunk base to crown).

Now going on to post 967. Holy cow! The first picture with the bunch having those long-tassle stuff is a hermaphrodite bunch, i.e. it produces male and female flowers on the same bunch. This is very abnormal. If it is one or two bunches, it could be due to stresses like drought, or lack of nutrients etc.; but if you have whole crop full of these things, then you've got some serious problems with the planting materials.

As for the poor fruit set on the other bunches, some of which are abortive or rotting, it is actually two possible things: (i) Poor fruit set due to poor pollination (ii) Insufficient nutrients. My first impression is that you've got a case of insufficient pollination. Reason being that the bunches have too many abortive sockets, but enough formed fruits to rule out the seriousness of other issues. Tell me, do you heavily spray insecticides? Is your field surrounded by older, mature palms? If insecticides are being heavily applied, then it is likely this is killing the pollinating weevils, the wee-little bugs that help make sure pollen is transfered to the female flowers so that fruit set takes place. Secondly, your palms may be putting out insufficient male flowers, and if your field is not surrounded by other older, mature palms, there could be not enough pollen to go around. Do take note that although more female flowers are desired, male flowers are equally needed. Ideally, the ratio should 1 male flower to every 10 female flowers.

I would also like to note that your palms have very acute frond angles. This is not desired, actually, as it hinders the expansion and growth of the bunches, resulting in wedge-shaped bunches with less fruits and lower weights. May not be a problem if pollen supply is sufficient.

As for your other trees, I can't comment too much. The durians seem to having canker, i.e. bark rot. No real cure for this, as far as I know. The young plant has been attacked by a leaf eating insect, most likely from the grasshopper family. Can't tell without looking closer at the bite marks, but the feeding pattern suggest it could be yellow-thigh grasshopper. They are big fellas, yellowish in color, with reddish wings when in flight. If not too big a population, just use a net to catch them. Otherwise, malathion or cypermethrin will also do the trick.

I can't see the termite picture, not sure why. There are a few species, but they usually can be killed and further prevented by using Rogor or Rigour. Just follow the directions on the label. But be careful, as it is also a neurotoxin to humans.