SURVEY AND ASSESSMENT OF POLLINATION SERVICE OF HONEY BEE FOR IMPROVEMENT OF MUSTARD PRODUCTION IN HAKALUKI HAOR: WETLAND ECOSYSTEM, AN ECOLOGICALLY CRITICAL AREA OF BANGLADESH

Hakaluki haor is the largest haor (wetland ecosystem, north eastern part of Bangladesh) consisting of fresh water swamp forest which has been declared as Ecologically Critical Area (ECA) of Bangladesh. Mustard is one of the most promising short duration crops in this ecosystem to escape from the pre-monsoon f lood. However, mustard yield was decreasing day by day due to the reduction of natural honey bee population. To develop a baseline information regarding the potentiality of apiculture practices, a survey of the local farmers and an experiment was conducted to assess the pollination services of honey bee in mustard field. It was found that about 62% of the farmers had positive perception about honey bee and 72% of the farmers were interested in apiculture. Around 73.3% of the farmers noticed the reduction of native honey bee population and 50% of the farmers considered reduction of natural honey bee being responsible for lower yield of mustard. About 77.3% of the farmers used different groups of pesticides viz. organophosphorous, pyrethroid, carbamate, triazoles, dicarboximide, and neonicotinoid in their mustard f ields to manage different pests and diseases. In field experiment, open pollination with artificial beehive significantly increased the number of silique per plant, seed per silique, weight of 1000 seeds and yield per plant. This study highlighted the scope of increasing pollination services through adopting intensive apiculture practices in the surveyed area for the sustainable livelihood.