Apis mellifera Linnaeus contribution in augmenting seed yield of Brassica carinata A. Braun

The studies on seed yield augmentation of African sarson cv. PC-6 revealed that in pollinators’ exclusion treatment had significantly lower seed setting and siliqua formation. Numbers of silique per plant in open pollinated and bee pollinated were 34.0 and 26.2 per cent, respectively higher than pollinators’ exclusion. Seed yield, per plant and per hectare was 141.2 and 131.4 per cent higher in open pollinated and bee pollinated over pollinator’s exclusion plots. Further studies on the effect of number of A. mellifera visits on flowers on the seed yield parameters revealed that flowers which received five bee visits resulted in the highest mean number of seeds per siliqua (11.45), thereby contributing 32.1 mg mean seed per siliqua. Overall results showed that the significance of bees in seed yield enhancement in B. carinata. however, other insect pollinators also play significant role in African sarson pollination.