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Abstract. Stingless bees (kelulut) keeping is now a trend in Malaysia. However, since demand for the source of colony in log is increasing, the log price is rapidly increasing. But, there is no data reported on the economic viability of meliponiculture in the current market price. Thus, the objective of this study is to clarify the economic viability of investment in meliponiculture in the current market price by engineering economic perspective. Investment in meliponiculture was analysed using Equivalent Annual Uniform Cost (EAUC), Internal Rate of Return (IRR) and Breakeven Analysis. A small start-up with 30 units of logs or hives was considered in the analysis. All raw data was acquainted from current Malaysian market price, but only revenue from honey was considered. It was found that EAUC indicated that the annual worth of the log system is 23% better than the hive system. However, IRR calculation indicated that both the log and the hive systems offer margin exceeding 55% which is a very good return in general investment. In addition, it was also found that the log system had breakeven after 8th month, whereas the hive was 13th month. Better economic value could be obtained if revenue from by-products are considered. Thus, it can be concluded that meliponiculture is still very economically viable in Malaysia market trend, and the hive systems could be a better choice if splitting colony, maintenance, safety and aesthetics points of view are considered.

Abstract.One of the problems faced in stingless bee honey storage is spoilage by the fermentation process occurs in honey due to its high water content. There are a few techniques available currently, but they are time consuming and there is excessive heat involved in the process. The temperature of the process must be kept low because excessive heat can deteriorate nutrition value and biochemical content in honey. Hence, a new method of honey dewatering was developed using a Low Temperature Vacuum Drying (LTVD) with induced nucleation technique.The objective of this research is to investigate the performance of a LTVD with induced nucleation to reduce the water content in honey. First, the honey was placed in a pressure vessel, and then air was removed. Then, the honey was slightly heated at 30ºC and the water content before and after the experiment was measured by a refractometer. The steps were repeated until the water content reached below 20%. It was found that the LTVD method improved the water removal rate significantly with an average of 0.15% of water content per minute. That is 3 times much faster than the conventional method of low temperature heating by Tabouret. Higher temperature during dewatering process improved the dewatering rate significantly. It can be concluded that LTVD is a promising option in tackling the high water content in stingless bee honey issue.

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This article explores the possibility of improving the design of CANTAS, by focusing on the failure analysis and the design optimisation of its sickle blade. The sickle blade material was replaced with 6262-T8 aluminium alloy. An analysis to inspect the sickle's mechanical strength against 300 N of cutting force was simulated using the finite element method (FEM) software. The total stress experienced by the new design (i.e., 1204 MPa) exceeded the material's ultimate tensile strength of 390 MPa; therefore, would break due to mechanical failure. The dimension of the weak point on the sickle was then increased to 25%. The improved sickle design only experienced 314 MPa of stress and did not exceed its ultimate tensile strength. The design was further optimised to reduce its weight. A reduction of 14% was achieved compared to the previous improved design and 69.7% compared to the original spring steel sickle with only 352 MPa of stress experienced. It also can withstand any directional impact force in drop test simulation. The aluminium alloy sickle is also 48% cheaper than spring steel sickle. However, a cost per tonne of productivity calculation shows that the performance of both sickle materials is very much the same.