EVALUATION OF POLLINATION BY HONEYBEE ON CANOLA PRODUCE

Abstract

In order to quantify the response of honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) on canola seed yield, an experiment was conducted at Beekeeping and Hill Fruit Pests Research, Station Rawalpindi during 2016-17, in complete randomized block design with two treatments (i. Plants caged with honeybees ii. Plants caged without honeybees) with three replications each. Numbers of pods per plant, seeds per plant and seeds weight per 100 pods were measured in ten randomly harvested plants. The results showed significant increase in all the plant parameters caged with bees as compared to the plants without bees (control). Number of pods plant -1 and number No. of seeds plant -1 with pollination were 67 and828 while without pollination was 47 and 626. The Seed weight 100 pods -1 (gm) with pollination was 4.42 (gm) and without pollination was 3.53 (gm), respectively. It is concluded from the experiment that role of honeybee visitation to the canola flowers is important for pollination and increasing seed yield.