1ICAR-Indian Grassland and Fodder Research Institute, Jhansi-284 003, Uttar Pradesh, India
2ICAR-National Research Center on Seed Spices, Ajmer-305 006, Rajasthan, India
3ICAR-National Bureau of Agricultural Insect Resources, Bengaluru-560 024, Karnataka, India
*Corresponding Author: M.C. Keerthi, Division of Crop Improvement, ICAR-Indian Grassland and Fodder Research Institute, Jhansi-284 003, Uttar Pradesh, India, Email: keerthimanikya@gmail.com
Online published on 22 November, 2024.
Egyptian clover (Trifolium alexandrinum L.) is one of the most important annual, winter, multi-cut fodder legumes grown in northern India. Many a times, poor activity of pollinators cited for lower seed production in berseem. Therefore, an appropriate local food-based bee attractants need to be identified and their effectiveness in enhancing berseem seed yield needs to be assessed.
The experiment was conducted to evaluate the significance of bee visit on yield parameters of berseem. In addition, the effect of attractant (jaggery and sugar at 10%) in enticing honey bees towards the berseem flower was evaluated at ICAR-IGFRI, Jhansi during 2017 and 2018.
Both the attractants (jaggery and sugar at 10%) are equally effective in drawing the Apis dorsata towards berseem and higher bee visits (8.75 and 8.54/m2/5 min) were recorded one hour after application. Maximum seed setting percentage was recorded in plots sprayed with jaggery (83.53) followed by sugar solution (82.58), which is significantly superior over farmers practice i.e. crop left for open pollination (74.86). Maximum seed yield was obtained from plots sprayed with jaggery solution (8.15 q/ ha). The bee visit had significant positive effect on seed yield (0.685*) and 1000 seed weight (0.671*).
Attractants, Jaggery, Seed setting, Seed yield, Trifolium alexandrinum
