Tracked tractors have been commonly used on paddy fields to overcome soft soil problem. However, triangular-shaped rubber-tracked tractors with high clearance has not been properly tested. The objective of the research was to evaluate the performance of a triangular, rubber-tracked tractor used in paddy fields. This tractor was tested in typical paddy field conditions at MARDI Seberang Perai. The prime mover was attached with a rotary tiller.  The performance tests include measuring the soil bearing capacity before and after machine disturbance, machine work rate per hectare and the effective field capacity. The fuel consumption was also recorded. Results showed that the tracked tractor obtained an effective field capacity of 0.576 hr/ha with average fuel consumption of 20 liters/ha. The lightweight tractor also contributed in producing less ground effects, combined with the use of low ground contact pressure tracks, that caused minimal soil disturbance that would affect the soil hardpan layer. The tractor had enough power to move in typical paddy field condition, with no soft soil problems. The tractor was able to turn 360 degrees within a small area, which made it suitable for working in paddy fields. This prime mover has potential to be used in paddy fields.

For the success of aerobic rice cultivation technology in the country, mechanization is one of the important aspects needs to be considered. Mechanization system for aerobic rice technology use to help increasing the revenue and workmanship of the operators for aerobic rice farming. Reduce labor costs, improve quality and save quality working hour is an important part of the work generated by the mechanized system. Through a system of aerobic rice mechanization, farm work such as land preparation, sowing, crop management and harvesting can be done easily and efficiently. In addition, mechanization system can also increase the pace of work and move the farmers of the aerobic rice paddy farming methods towards the modernization agriculture practice.

Crop maintenance machinery for herbicide spraying and spreading fertilizer input has been the current practice for paddy production in Malaysia, especially in large granary areas. Soft soil issues in paddy fields have become a significant problem and prevent heavy machinery from conducting field operations. Current paddy prime movers use rubber wheels that produce high ground contact pressure onto the soil for crop maintenance operation. With high ground contact pressure, the probability of machines sinking into the soil, or bogged down, is higher and can cause the machine to get stuck. This also can result in hardpan damage (Mandang et al., 2000). Recently, prime agriculture mover uses steel track that has the issue on-road or soil damaged due to the grousers material use. Engineering Research Centre in Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI) have found an alternative solution for this issue by developing and replacing all the wheels on a standard 12.75 kW (17 hp) High Clearance Prime Mover with Polyoxymethylene (POM) grousers equipped on triangular track-based system. This paper aims to find the optimal size of grousers for POM material to be installed on the high clearance machinery for alternative solutions to solve problematic soil and its effect on the soil. Polyoxymethylene or POM was chosen due to its excellent rigidity, impact toughness, abrasion resistance, creep resistance and solvent resistance, hydrolytic stability fatigue endurance, low coefficient of friction lightweight. To develop suitable POM grousers, a triangular track-based system has been tested with three different length sizes of rectangular wooden track grousers 13 x 4 x 4 cm, 15 x 4 x 4 cm, and 18 x 4 x 4 cm that could be quickly mounted on or removed from D4 track chain, permitting rapid sequential testing on the soft soil area. Field tests have been conducted at MARDI Seberang Perai, Pulau Pinang. The measured parameters were slippage, machine sinkage, and soil compaction.  The high clearance prime mover obtained slippage of 16.4% using 13cm shoes and 18.2% for 15 cm 22.2% for 18 cm accordingly, and sinkage for all shoe size were less than 30 cm.

Geophysical data through electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) and induced polarization (IP) can be assisted to understanding hydrogeological characteristic of groundwater aquifer. By knowing the difference in electrical resistivity and induced polarization values in alluvium deposition will facilitate to identify any groundwater occurrence. In agriculture sector, shallow tube well will be option to farmers due to more economic. The resistivity measurements proved to be a good tool for mapping the subsurface in the Alluvium, especially when used in combination with Induced Polarization parameters. Alluvial deposits or fluvial deposits are composed of particles of gravel, sand, silt or clay size that are not bound or hardened by permeable mineral, by pressure, or thermal alteration of the grains. Consideration of gravelly deposition is the higher hydraulic conductivity. Furthermore, coarse to fine sand are the second higher followed by silt and clay are the lowest values. From the case study, the electrical resistivity tomography of these deposits ranged from 40 to 1000 Ωm, while the values of chargeability were 0 to 20 mS/m. The bottom of the aquifer consisted of a layer with gravelly sandy silt, and the resistivity was 260 Ωm, while the chargeability was 6.5 mS/m. The shallow tube well in quaternary aquifer was constructed at 51 m depth with thickness of aquifer was 24 m to 51 m depth into the ground will consider for groundwater resources. The groundwater discharge from tubewell is 6.53 m3/hr in mixed gravel, sandy and silt.

Fertilisation in grain corn production is an important stage that must be done properly in terms of the amount of fertiliser used to reduce wastage and ensure crop growth. A fertilising implement brand Gasprado, was calibrated and evaluated for its performance to apply urea to grain corn crops at MARDI Seberang Perai, Pulau Pinang. Calibration was conducted to set the right metering for the device's opening to drop  urea that  meets the application rate of 130kg/ha. This was done by measuring the amount of urea dropped for a particular setting and distance. The machine has four metering devices which were labelled as MD1, MD2, MD3 and MD4. Additionally, the fertiliser applicator also comes with spring tine cultivating devices. The implement was tested for fertilising 56 rows of grain corn in the distance of 62 m long. The times taken for the tractor to finish four rows per run along the 62-m distance and to turn at the headland were recorded to evaluate the performance. The implement's metering devices MD1, MD2, MD3 and MD4 were calibrated at setting scales of B-1.5, B-0, B-0 and B-0, respectively that gave the urea application rate of 133 kg/ha, which was the nearest rate to the recommendation. The average working speed of the operation was at 4.08 km/h with the theoretical field capacity to be at 1.224 ha/h. Meanwhile, the machine's effective field capacity was 0.5208 ha/h, which had a field efficiency of 42.5 % for the particular farm design. The use of machine can speed up the operation of applying fertiliser to the grain corn crop but the performance is dependent on the farm layout.