Study of the honeybee (Apis mellifera ) and their role in oilseed rape agro- ecosystem in Bangladesh

Abstract

Many wild and cultivated plants benefit from pollinators. The pollination needs of oilseed rape, a mass-flowering crop, have received a lot of attention. Moreover, despite the fact that this crop's production area in Bangladesh has increased rapidly over the few years, a little is known about how it is pollinated here. We surveyed the role of insect pollination in the development of oilseed rape seeds, conducted a survey of the flower-visiting insects present in oilseed rape fields. We measured the role that honeybee pollination plays in the production of oilseed rape seeds with 3 treatments i) open pollination ii) bagged pollination and iii) plot netted with honey bees (3 frames) our findings indicated that a wide range of insect species, including honeybees, and hoverflies, house fly, ensign fly were frequent in open oilseed rape where honeybee (Apis dorsata and Apis mellifera) were dominant. In rapeseed, pollination included plot (netted with honeybee) increased 14.42 percent higher yield per hectares compared to the open pollinated plots. To ensure the ongoing provision of pollination services to oilseed rape, we can recommend the right conservation and management of both honeybees and wild pollinators in agricultural regions, since a decline in insect numbers has the potential to adversely affect crop yields.