Insect Pollinators of Sesame and the Effect of Entomophilous Pollination on Seed Production in New Alluvial Zone of West Bengal (original) (raw)
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A survey of insects associated with sesame, Sesamun indicum L. (Pedaliaceae) was conducted at the Agriculture Research Farm of The Faculty of Agriculture, University of Suez Canal during the growing seasons 2010 and 2011. All different insect species found on the experimental site were collected for identification. Sampling was done once a week and three times a day. Three methods were used to collect insects from the sesame plants (a sweep net, pitfall traps, digital camera and eye observation). A total of 31 insect species were collected and properly identified during the survey. Insects recorded on the plants were divided into four groups, true pollinators (Hymenoptera), other pollinators (Diptera, Coleoptera and Lepidoptera), pests (Orthoptera, Odonata, Hemiptera and Homoptera) and natural enemies (Coleoptera, Hymenoptera, Neuroptera and Dictyoptera).
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Journal of entomology and zoology studies, 2020
This paper reviews a role of pollinator’s in vegetable seed production and commercial production of large numbers of colonies for the pollination. The pollination phase has a significant impact on final seed yield and quality. The most reliable and efficient form of pollination is through insects. Though butterflies, moths, beetles, thrips, birds play a role in pollination, honey bees are the ideal pollinators. Many insects such as honey bees (Apis mellifera, A. cerana), bumble bees (Bombus haemorrhoidalis, B. terrestris) and flies are the important pollinators which are in commercial use. Low seed yield due to inadequate pollination is often faced as a major problem in vegetable seed production. There is a need to ensure pollination by conserving the pollinators and attracting them towards the crop land. The pollination potential and economic importance of the effect of honeybees on these vegetables is still need to be established.
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Among the nine oilseed crops grown in India, Sesamum ranks f ifth for important edible oil crop after groundnut, r a p e s e e d-m u s t a r d , s u n f l o w e r a n d s o y b e a n (www.agricoop.nic.in). India accounts for 39 % area, 27 % production and 40 % export of sesame in the world. India holds a top position in the world in sesame-acreage (24 %) and contribution in export (40 %) (Raikwar & Srivastva, 2013; Iqbal ., 2016; http://www.faostat.fao.o7 rg/site/567/default.aspx#ancor). In India, cultivation of the crop is mainly conf ined to the states
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2018
Besides, making use of agronomic inputs and biotechnological approaches, the third way of increasing crop production and productivity is through management of pollination. It is an essential ecological services, provide by pollinators, helps in mitigating the problems of food production, nutritional security and biodiversity conservation. Pollinators, both biotic and abiotic, play an important role in sustaining the life in earth. Among various biotic polzlinators, which include living organism such as insects, birds, bats and others, insect pollinators play significant role in increasing food production through the process of their foraging. In the world of insects, different species of bees including honeybees, bumble-bees, stingless bees, and solitary bees are the most effective pollinators of crops. Over 25,000 species of bees are reported to pollinate over 70% of the world’s cultivated crops. About 15% of the world’s 100 principal crops are pollinated by manageable species of h...
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The sustainability of agriculture can be improved by integrating management of ecosystem services, such as insect pollination, into farming practices. However, large-scale adoption of ecosystem services-based practices in agriculture is lacking, possibly because growers undervalue the benefits of ecosystem services compared to those of conventional management practices. Here we show that, under representative real-world conditions, pollination and plant quality made similar contributions to marketable seed yield of hybrid leek (Allium porrum). Relative to the median, a 25% improvement of plant quality and pollination increased crop value by an estimated 18007and18 007 and 18007and17 174 ha À1 respectively. Across five crop lines, bumblebees delivered most pollination services, while other wild pollinator groups made less frequent but nevertheless substantial contributions. Honeybees actively managed for pollination services did not make significant contributions. Our results show that wild pollinators are an undervalued agricultural input and managing for enhancing pollinators makes sense economically in high-revenue insect-pollinated cropping systems.
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2018
Pollinators and pollinizers play pivotal role in pollination of arid and semi-arid horticultural crop species for sustaining the crop diversity and production systems. Many horticultural crops such as ber, aonla, pomegranate, phalsa, fig, jamun, citrus, bael, khejri, cucurbits, field beans etc. require insect pollinators for efficient pollination) to gain the higher yield. The pollinators and pollinizers increase quantitative and qualitative traits of horticultural crop produce. The present paper provides comprehensive information on the role of native as well as managed pollinators in the arid and semi-arid horticultural crop production. It is necessary to understand the importance of pollinators and pollinizers species richness or diversity in their natural habitat and role in crop improvement. The pollination with honeybees, knowledge about pollinizers, pollinator’s management and artificial pollination are major horticultural inventions to enhance the yield and quality in hortic...
Insect pollination is the weakest link in the production of a hybrid seed crop
Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 2020
Ecological intensification of farming proposes that more effective use of ecosystem services can, in part, replace external inputs allowing farmers to maintain high crop yields while reducing adverse effects on the environment. However, uptake of ecological intensification among farmers is currently hampered by a lack of realistic studies on the agronomic benefits of enhancing ecosystem services vis-à-vis the benefits of conventional external inputs. Here, we use a full-factorial field experiment to test the relative and interactive effects of fertilisation, irrigation and pollination on crop yield of three parental crop lines of leek (Allium porrum) hybrid seed production. In a commercial leek seed production field, we assessed the agronomic performance of plants receiving conventional or 50 % reduced external inputs and that were either continuously accessible to pollinators or only 50 % of the time. For all crop lines, we found that reducing insect pollination had at least two times stronger effects on crop yield than similar reductions in fertilisation or irrigation. Surprisingly, reducing fertiliser inputs by half did not negatively affect crop yield (one line) or even increased crop yield (two lines), suggesting that in this system fertiliser is an over-applied agricultural input. Reducing irrigation did not affect crop yield in two lines but reduced crop yield in the third line. However, there were strong indications that this negative effect of reduced irrigation was due to reduced attractiveness for pollinators. Effects of fertilisation, irrigation and pollination on crop yield were additive, with the exception of pollination effects being influenced by fertilisation level in one of the lines. Under real-world conditions, reductions in insect pollination consistently reduced hybrid leek crop yield while reductions in external inputs did not. This suggests that in this cropping system insect pollination is the weakest link in the agricultural production process. Our findings help explain why the relation between agricultural intensification and yield growth disappears with the dependence of crops on insect pollination. For insect-depended crops, protection or promotion of pollinators in agricultural landscapes is essential for maintaining high yields.
Mechanisms of pollination : quantifying insect and plant contributions
2018
Global agricultural production is reliant on insect-mediated pollination, which is largely provided by the European honey bee (Apis mellifera L.). Recent concern about the health of honey bees has raised significant concern about the future of food production and, as a result, alternate pollinators have been explored to provide these services. However, identifying which insect species are efficient pollinators of a particular plant species is challenging and labor-intensive. Additionally, even if an alternate pollinator is identified, its services may be insufficient to prevent pollination failure, which may be due to other factors. This thesis explores different measures that can be used to assess a species' effectiveness as a pollinator and the causes of pollination failure. Particularly, it addresses four main questions: 1) whether insect behavior or pollen transport can be used to predict single-visit pollen deposition (and thus pollinator efficiency) in four vegetable seed ...