Study the activity of honey bee and effect of various treatments on pollination and yield parameters of sunflower

Abstract

Experiment was conducted to find out the effect of some botanicals and neonicotinoids on activity of honey bee and the effect of pollination on yield parameters of sunflowers. The research work was carried out on field of Division of Entomology RCSM College of Agriculture, Kolhapur during Summer, 2021. The daily foraging activity of honey bee was initiate at 0800 hr and cessation at late evening 17.45 hr. The peak activity periods of honey bee during day time were recorded at 0900 hr, 1000 hr, 1100 hr, 1600 hr and 1700 hr. Relative abundance of different honey bee species at 10 percent flowering of sunflower revealed that the maximum number of Apis cerana indica was recorded this was (35.55%) followed by A. dorsata (21.41%), A. florae (19.72%), A. mellifera (13.56%). Significantly highest yield contributing characters of sunflower were recorded in the treatment plots treated with caged condition of one colony of A. cerana indica (32.67 q/ha) followed by sugar syrup 5% (26.53 q/ha) and open pollination (24.37 q/ha). Among the neonicotinoids acetamiprid 20% SP (24.28 q/ha) recorded maximum yield while in botanicals the highest yield obtained from the plots treated with tobacco (24.14 q/ha). The lowest yield was recorded in the plots covered with net and without insect (11.69 q/ha). The daily activity of different species of honey bees were initiate between 0700 hr to 8.30 and cessation at 17.50 hr to 18.45 hr.