Pollinator profile and their influence on the yield enhancement in sesame

Abstract

Insect pollinators contribute a major part in cross-pollination, few among them visit the sesame flowers that enhance the yield in terms of both qualitative and quantitative. The investigation took place at the oilseed research farm, National Agricultural Research Centre aiming to evaluate the pollinator profile of sesame and the impact of Apis mellifera on yield enhancement. Hymenopterans were the predominant floral visitors, constituting 90.81% of the total floral visitors, followed by the Dipterans and Coleopterans. Bees emerged as the most frequent floral visitors, with Bombus haemorrhoidalis being the most abundant at 27.16%, followed by A. dorsata (25.04%), A. mellifera (16.27%), and A. florea (9.34%). All the bee species started their activity before 09:00 am. Bombus haemorrhoidalis, A. dorsata, A. cerana, and A. mellifera attained their peak activity at 09:00 am whereas A. florea at 03:00 pm and Xylocopa fenestrata at 12:00 pm. The maximum number of pods with greater seed weight and yield was obtained in open-pollinated (41.53 pods/m², 3.44 gm/1000 seeds, and 91.97 gm/m² respectively) followed by A. mellifera and self-pollinated. This study concluded that honeybees especially A. mellifera play an important role in increasing the sesame yield. Further studies should focus on the impact of Apis and non-Apis bees on the reproductive success of sesame in terms of a single visit -as it is a tool for measuring the impact of pollinators on plant reproductive success- and the influence of climatic conditions like wind velocity, ambient temperature, light intensity, and relative humidity on the bee foraging activity.