Impact of cucurbit crop management techniques on the foraging behavior of honeybees and hoverflies in Morogoro, Tanzania
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Date
2024
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
BMC Ecology and Evolution
Abstract
Background Poor agricultural practices have drastically threatened insect pollinators’ biodiversity. Little is known
in Tanzania about how different agricultural practices affect pollinators’ foraging behavior. This study investigated
the effects of the agroecological zone, season, cucurbit species and management practices on visitation frequency,
visitation rate and time spent on cucurbit flowers by five pollinator species viz. Apis mellifera, Eristalinus megacepha-
lus, Mesembrius caffer, Paragus borbonicus and Toxomerus floralis. The experiment was designed as a 5 × 3 × 3 × 2 × 2
factorial arrangement in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with four replications. GAMOUR-Agroecology
was tested against conventional practices and untreated control.
Results This study revealed significant effects of agroecological zone × season × cucurbit species × management
practice on pollinators’ visitation frequency (p = 0.007) and time spent on flowers (p = 0.005). Also, agroecological zone
× season × cucurbit species × pollinator species significantly (p < 0.0001) affected pollinators’ visitation frequency.
Agroecological zones × season × cucurbit species × cucurbits management practices × pollinators significantly
(p = 0.001) affected pollinators’ visitation rate. Apis mellifera was the most frequent visitor in Cucurbita moschata
plots treated with GAMOUR- Agroecology in the plateau zone, also, visited higher number of Cucumis sativus plots
under GAMOUR-Agroecology practices in the mountainous zone during the October–November season. Further-
more, it has been found that pollinators spent much in cucurbit flowers on plots with GAMOUR-Agroecology prac-
tices and control.
Conclusions Pollinators’ foraging behavior were enhanced by GAMOUR-Agroecology practices. Therefore, this study
recommended that cucurbit growers should consider management practices that positively influence pollinator
foraging activities for sustainable cucurbit production
Description
Research article
Keywords
GAMOUR-agroecology, Pollinators, Visitation frequency, Visitation rate