Effectiveness of Native Insect Pollinators in Mungra (Raphanus sativus) Seed Production

Abstract

Bees have been observed to be the most effective pollinators in increasing the yield of fruits and seeds in various vegetable crops. To assess the pollination efficiency of indigenous bee species for the successful pollination of mungra crops (Raphanus sativus), an experiment was carried out at the research farm of Muhammad Nawaz Shareef University of Agriculture in Multan, Pakistan. The effectiveness of the most prevalent pollinators was measured using parameters such as visitation rate, duration of stay per flower, percentage of stigma contact, as well as the percentage of pod set from a single visit and the number of seeds per pod. The results indicated that Xylocopa sp. exhibited a notably higher visitation rate and stigma contact percentage, surpassing A. dorsata and A. mellifera. When considering the effectiveness of a single pollinator visit in terms of pod set percentage and the number of seeds per pod, Xylocopa sp. emerged as the most proficient pollinator, followed by A. dorsata and A. mellifera. Additionally, open-pollinated flowers demonstrated significantly higher pod set percentages and a greater number of seeds per pod compared to self-pollinated flowers. Conserving these efficient native bee species could potentially lead to increased vegetable crop production and greater returns for farmers in other cross pollinated crops in the Punjab Pakistan.