STUDY OF POLLINATING PERFORMANCE OF NATIVE POLLINATORS ON BER (Ziziphus mauritiana LAMK.)
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Date
2023-08-03
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BANDA UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE & TECHNOLOGY, BANDA-210001, UTTAR PRADESH (INDIA)
Abstract
Ber (Ziziphus mauritiana, Lamk.) belongs to the Rhamnaceae family and it is an important
fruit crop for arid and semi-arid regions. It has delicious flavour and potent nutritional properties;
hence it is known as the peasantry's fruit. The ber flowers exhibit synchronous protandrous
dichogamy, which means that anther dehiscence occurs before stigma receptivity. The flower
biology and heavy pollen offer great potential for cross pollination. Pollination is an intricate
relationship between plants and pollinators. Pollination is one of the most essential ecosystem
services, which is effectual for fruit productivity. The pollination management, augmentation and
conservation of pollinators would increase the fruit productivity manifold. Present investigation
envisaged to compare the performance of anthophiles/pollinators. Experiments were conducted at
Horticulture farm of Banda University of Agricultural & Technology, Banda. Various observations
were recorded viz. diversity of the anthophiles/pollinators, foraging initiation and foraging
cessation, Relative abundance, visitation rate, time spent, Pollen deposition on stigma, Fruit weight,
Fruit productivity. Total 21 anthophiles were recorded during blooming period of ber, they belong
to 19 families and 6 orders recorded on boom of ber. The Shannon-Wiener diversity index of
anthophiles H’= 2.360 was obtained on ber. The longest foraging duration in a day recorded with
M. domestica. The visitation rates, time spend and relative abundance of pollinators varied from
species to species, day to day and time to time. The maximum visitation rate (20.05 flower/ min),
maximum time spent (3.15sec./ flower) and maximum relative abundance (4.25 visit/ meter2
/ 5
minutes) were recorded with Apis florea. Out of the anthophiles, A. florea, Polistes versicolor,
Musca domestica, Lucilia sericata and Sceliphron caementarium were screened as pollinators and
out of these pollinators, A. florea was key pollinator of ber in this region on the basis of pollen
transfer on stigma. The maximum fruit weight and Fruit productivity of ber was recorded with the
open pollination. It advocates that augmentation and conservation of above-mentioned key
pollinators can maximize the pollination and thereby, enhance the ber productivity.
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Citation
SANDEEP SINGH {2023}, Study of pollinating performance of native pollinators on ber (Ziziphus mauritiana lamk.),M.Sc. (Ag.),BANDA UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE & TECHNOLOGY, BANDA-210001, UTTAR PRADESH (INDIA)