Can Commercial Bee Attractants Influence in Increasing Bee Pollination and Productivityof Mustard, Brassica campestris L.?

Abstract

Honeybees are considered as most efficient pollinators in the ecosystem and utilization of bees as pollinators for various agri-horticultural crops is of great significance in increasing crop productivity through pollination. The different concentrations of Bee-Q and Fruit boostTM? was evaluated to understand the honeybee visitation pattern of target crop for improving pollination efficiency. The bee visitations on Mustard flowers were observed for two weeks followed by estimation of seed yield. The observations indicate that, Bee-Q at 12.5g/l and Fruit boost at 0.75ml/l of Mustard plots significantly attracted highest number of bee foragers than the control plots. The present investigation suggests that the bee attractants increase marginal percentage of bee visitation, seed yield and germination percentage of Mustard