A method to detect ganoderma boninense infection in oil palm

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method to detect Ganoderma boninense infection in oil palm. In the current state of the art, a number of field detection methods have been employed, however these methods cannot be used to detect the disease accurately at the early stage. The present invention provides a method to detect Ganoderma boninense infection in oil palm trunk, comprising (a) driving a plurality of acoustic wave sensors / actuators (10) into said oil palm trunk evenly around a perimeter of said oil palm trunk using a soft-tip hammer; (b) tapping each of said plurality of acoustic wave sensors / actuators (10) using a hard-tip hammer; (c) acquiring time of flight data by said plurality of acoustic wave sensors / actuators (10); (d) sending said time of flight data by said plurality of acoustic wave sensors / actuators (10) to a computing device; (e) converting said time of flight data into velocity and distribution along acoustic wave propagation data by said computing device (30); and (f) generating tomography images from said velocity and distribution along acoustic wave propagation data by said computing device (30).