Evaluation of Indigenous Bee Attractants in Bt Cotton (Bunny BG-II)

The present investigations were carried out on the farmer's field at Govanakoppa village under Bailahongal taluk in Belgum district. Bee attractants play a beneficial role in enhancing pollination and yield of crops especially when target crop is not so attractive to the bees naturally or when the weather conditions are not conducive for foraging by the beeson target crop. In India, importing commercial bee attractants is cost prohibitive and hence they are practically far away from the reach of majority of Indian farmers. When overall mean of all the three sprays was considered it showed that Citral E, Citral Z, F. budrunga, S. densifolia attracted significantly more number of bees (2.13 to 2.96 bees/10m2/5min) which were on par with each other and were as good as Fruit boost (2.00 to 2.17 bees/10m2/5 min). This could provean efficient tool to farmers in enhancing yield and a critical component of IPM.