Abstract
The experiment was conducted at the Spices Research Centre, Shibgonj, Bogra during rabi season, 2010-11and 2011-12 to identify the suitable pollinator attractant crops for increasing the vigilance of pollinators and higher seed settings and thereby increasing seed yield of onion. In 2010-11, the highest seed setting was recorded in onion + fennel (69.88%) which was statistically identical to Onion + coriander (67.45 %) and Onion + black cumin (64.15 %) while the highest seed setting was recorded in Onion + Fennel (73.70 %) which was identical to Onion + Dill (70.50%) and Onion + Coriander( 72.37%) during 2011-12. In 2010-11, the highest seed yield (865.5 kg/ha) was obtained from Onion + fennel which was identical to Onion + coriander (838.1 kg/ha) but in 2011-12, the highest seed yield (1165.34 kg/ha) was recorded from Onion + fennel which was identical to Onion + coriander (1064.59 kg/ha). In both the years, percent seed setting was lowest in Sole onion (55.93 % in 2010-11and 57.73% in 2011-12). Accordingly, the lowest seed yield was also recorded from Sole onion (623.3 kg/ha in 2010-11 and 685.44 kg/ha in 2011-12). Dill and Fennel was the better attractant crop for pollination while coriander acted as intermediate. Int J Appl Sci Biotechnol, Vol 3(4): 737-743
Highlights
Onion is an important spice crop in Bangladesh
In 2010-11, Fennel was sown on the day of onion planting, Black cumin was sown on 16 days later than onion planting and Coriander was sown on 15 days later than onion planting
Vigilance on Attractant Crops Attractant crops were sown in onion field to enhance pollination in onion
Summary
Onion is an important spice crop in Bangladesh. The average world production of onion (Bulb) is 15 t/ha and in Bangladesh it is only 7.1 t/ha (BBS, 2013). The vigilance of pollinators is not enough in onion field for more fertilization as well as for quality seed production. Farmers have to import/ raise pollinators to ensure good production of their crops (CWF, 2008) It is possible in some situation to encourage the vigilance of different pollinators by distributing suitable pollinator attractants border crop like Fennel, Dill & Black cumin, fruit juice (mango, jackfruit etc) or dried fish surrounding/within the flowering crop (Currah and Proctor, 1990). In Bangladesh, little work has been made in this regard With this view, the present study has been aimed to identify suitable attractant crop for increasing vigilance of pollinators for higher seed yield of onion
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