The Effect of Honeybee (<i>Apis mellifera</i>) Pollination on Seed Yield and Yield Components of <i>Brassica carinata A. Braun Shaya</i> Variety in Highland of Bale, South-Eastern Ethiopia

Abstract

Pollination is the most important ecosystem service provided by insects. The study was conducted to evaluate the effect of honeybee pollination on seed yield and yield related components of Brassica carinata Shaya variety at the highland of Bale (2020 to 2022). The study had three treatments; which includes crops caged with honeybees, crops caged without honeybees, and open pollinated with five replications. The experimental design was arranged in RCBD. All collected data were statistically analyzed using one way ANOVA using Gen-Stat software. There was a significant difference (P<0.05) on flowering periods, number of pod per plant, number of seed per pod, and thousands seed weights. Whereas, there were no significant differences (p>0.05) in date flowering, number of primary branches, and secondary branches among treatments. The highest seed yield had observed in crops caged with honeybees (24.01quintal/ha) followed by open pollinated crops (19.91quintal/ha), whereas crops excluded from insect pollinators showed the least (17.08 quintals/ha. The result revealed that crops caged with honeybees and open pollinations had 34.8% and 16.57% seed yield advantage respectively over crops excluded from insect pollinators. Therefore, it is important to keep a sufficient number of honeybee colonies nearby the field of B. carinata during flowering periods to boost seed production and productivity in similar agro-ecologies. Further study could be required to evaluate honey bee colonies carrying capacity of the <i>B. carinata</i>.