Abstract
The effect of honeybee (Apis mellifera carnica) on yield was investigated in open-pollinated faba bean cultivars and three inbred generations produced from them (once-selfed, twice-selfed, and thrice-selfed). All entries were grown in cages under two pollination conditions: presence of bees (cross-pollination) or absence of bees (self-pollination). The open-pollinated generations gave the highest performance in the presence and absence of bees. In the presence of bees, the open-pollinated and their inbred entries gave higher performance in all of the studied traits than in the absence of bees; the average improvement in yield and its components was 22%. The highest improvement percentage in yield performance was shown by more inbred entries (thrice-selfed > once-selfed), indicating that in faba bean populations, the performance of inbred generations was chiefly associated with the tripping of flowers, which is usually governed by successfully fertilized flowers, i.e., plants result from selfing in faba bean population needs to be visited by pollinating insects (bees) to set more seeds. It concluded that honeybee has an important role in increasing faba bean yield in semi-arid conditions; hence, it is important to provide a pollinator friendly environment for their foraging places and nesting sites to secure food supply.
Highlights
The highest improvement percentage in yield performance was shown by more inbred entries, indicating that in faba bean populations, the performance of inbred generations was associated with the tripping of flowers, which is usually governed by successfully fertilized flowers, i.e., plants result from selfing in faba bean population needs to be visited by pollinating insects to set more seeds
In study carried out under two pollination conditions: self-pollination and bee pollination conditions where beehives were introduced during the growing seasons near the plots and bees were left free-flying to carry out both self- and cross-pollination, [16] reported an increase in pod sets, seed per pods and seed yield in four faba bean genotypes and reported a yield increase of about 49% in bee-pollination condition compared to self-pollination
The results showed significant differences due to the effect of pollination condition and genotypes in all traits
Summary
Different from self-pollinated legumes, faba bean productivity is hindered by its reproductive mode [6] as the crop is partly self- and partly cross-pollinated species (mix-mating). Both self- and cross-pollination are carried out by pollinating insects (bees, bumble bees, etc.). In the presence of pollinators, cross-fertilization occurs and this is associated with heterosis and yield increase [6] [8] as well as improvement in seed quality [9] [10] [11] [12] and raising returns of the farmers. [15] reported an average yield benefit of 17% in managed honey bee applied to faba bean in 17 fields in South Australia and observed a decrease in pods per plant field with increasing distance from hives
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