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PRINT ISSN : 2319-7692
Online ISSN : 2319-7706 Issues : 12 per year Publisher : Excellent Publishers Email : editorijcmas@gmail.com / submit@ijcmas.com Editor-in-chief: Dr.M.Prakash Index Copernicus ICV 2018: 95.39 NAAS RATING 2020: 5.38 |
Mustard (Brassica spp.), family cruciferae are the major oilseed crop grow throughout India for edible oil. It is an open pollinated crop and honeybees are effective pollinators for open pollinated crops because of a lot of nectar and pollens are available on the flowers of mustard. The studies were conducted during rabi 2013-14 and 2014-15 at ARS, Kota to enhance the yield of mustard through honey bee pollinator. Mustard variety “Bio-902” was grown following all recommended agronomic practices without spraying through the crop season. The colonies of honeybee (Apis mellifera) were placed in cage measuring 10X10 sq. meters before the initiation of flowering. The present study contained three pollination treatments viz., Plants caged Pollinator Exclusion (PE), Plants caged with bee hive (BP) and Plants kept open to all pollinators (OP). The comparative data pertaining to modes of pollination in mustard crop revealed that highest values of mean no. of siliqua/plant (186.44), no. of seeds/ siliqua (13.82) and seed yield (20.54 q/ha) were obtained from OP followed by BP and it was recorded lowest in PE. The introduction of honeybees in agricultural crops plays a vital role in pollination which in turn resulted in higher production of seed yield as well as honey production.