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Pollination requirements of important Brassica oilseed crops for augmenting seed production through managed honey bee pollination

KrishiKosh

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Title Pollination requirements of important Brassica oilseed crops for augmenting seed production through managed honey bee pollination
 
Creator Suman Kumari
 
Contributor Chhuneja, P.K.
 
Subject Apis mellifera, Brassica napus, Brassica juncea, bee visits, efficient pollinator, foraging intensity, foraging rate, pollination, pollination index, pollination benefits, seed yield.
##Unable to generate tags ph.d. dissertation.pdf
##Unable to generate tags ph.d. dissertation.pdf
 
Description The studies on the ‘Pollination requirements of important Brassica oilseed crops for augmenting seed production through managed honey bee pollination’ conducted at Ludhiana involving Brassica napus cv. GSC-6 and Brassica juncea cv. RLC-1 revealed that of the total 18-20 insect species captured from the crops blooms, 80.01-83.62 per cent were Hymenopterans, predominately Apis spp. and these were the most abundant about noon time. On B. napus, the foraging intensity among honey bees was in the order of A. mellifera > A. cerana >A. dorsata, while the foraging rate was in the order of A. cerana > A. mellifera > A. dorsata. Pollen gathering A. mellifera, A. cerana and A. dorsata bees ranged between 14.7-31.7, 8.6-19.7 and 12.5-30.0 per cent and the peak was between 1000-1200 h. On B. juncea, the foraging intensity and foraging rate were in the order of A. cerana > A. mellifera >A. dorsata. Pollen gathering populations of A. mellifera, A. cerana and A. dorsata ranged between 12.5-31.9, 7.8-19.2 and 10.8-30.6 per cent with peak between 1000-1200 h. The proportion of top foragers on both the crops was in the order of A. dorsata > A. mellifera > A. cerana. Eight A. mellifera visits on the blooms of B. napus and B. juncea resulted in the highest seed weight per pod (106.09 and 98.58 mg, respectively). On B. napus, A. mellifera pollination resulted in 127.14, 23.69 and 49.65 per cent increase in the number of pods per plant, number of seeds per pod and seed yield over exclusion of pollinators, while on B. juncea, the corresponding figures were 83.78, 35.39 and 43.46 per cent, respectively. From B. napus, the highest mean number of loose pollen grains (1,10,600) was recorded from A. mellifera at 1000 h followed by that from A. cerana (97,700). From B. juncea, the corresponding figures were 1,09,300 and 92,000, respectively. Honey from A. mellifera colonies placed near B. napus and B. juncea fields predominately contained 86.24 and 84.97 per cent pollens from family Brassicaceae, respectively. A. mellifera ranked as the most efficient pollinator on the basis of its highest pollination index of 1.38 and 1.28 calculated using performance scores of various honey bee species for B. napus and B. juncea, respectively. The maximum benefit of pollination in B. napus and B. juncea in terms of enhancement in seed yield and quality, based on field studies, on average, were recorded up to 42.5 m distance from A. mellifera colony on which basis, the requirement of 10 bee-frame colonies came out to be 1.76 per ha. Thus, two colonies each of 10 bee-frame strength are suggested to be kept per ha for maximizing pollination benefits to B. napus and B. juncea.
 
Date 2016-08-18T17:42:20Z
2016-08-18T17:42:20Z
2014
 
Type Thesis
 
Identifier http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/72921
 
Format application/pdf
 
Publisher Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana