Oil palm industry players, government officials and plantation experts would gather at the biennial event organised by the board to deliberate on the labour situation in the oil palm sector.
MPOB Director-General Datuk Dr Choo Yuen May said the seminar, themed "Labour Rationalisation for the Sustenance of the Malaysian Oil Palm Industry", would be officiated by Minister Of Plantation Industries and Commodities Datuk Douglas Uggah Embas.
"PILIPS 2014 is set to attract the participation of captains of the industry, managers, planters, associations, scientists, academicians, economists and policy makers.
"Apart from focusing on labour issues, PILIPS 2014 will also look into the sustainability aspect of the oil palm industry," she said in a statement released to Bernama.
Choo said several speakers both from the Malaysian palm oil industry and the Indonesian Oil Palm Association have been lined up to present and share their views and experience in labour utilisation.
"MPOB anticipates a fruitful outcome from PILIPS 2014 considering that labour constraints have been a major industry concern. It will be an exciting event for industry players," she said.
Choo said the demanding nature of work in the estates and the growing number of attractive alternative job opportunities in other industries have somewhat made oil palm plantations unattractive to the labour force in the country.
"Nevertheless the industry continues to thrive following the introduction of numerous technologies and plantation management practices that optimise the workers' productivity and minimise the use of manual labour in the sector.
"Over the last two decades, the industry has managed to reduce its dependence on manual labour through mechanisation of most plantation activities," she said.
Towards this end, MPOB has introduced a number of machines for harvesting and transporting of fresh fruit bunches.
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