Comparative Study on the Adaptation of Selected Herbaceous Bee Forages in Mid Rift Valley of Ethiopia
Girma Chalchissa, Desta Abi, Taye Beyene and Mekonin W/Tsadik
Corresponding Author: Girma Chalchissa, gishecha@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
The study was conducted in three districts of Ethiopian mid rift valley to evaluate germination date, blooming duration and number of bee visit of seven species of herbaceous bee forages. There was significant difference (P<0.01) in germination date, blooming duration and bee visit among different bee forages in each site. Phacelia tanacetifolia, Bacium grandflorum, Trifolium pretense and Lenorus had the shortest germination date than other plant species at Adami Tulu Research station. Whereas, Lenorus, Bacium grandflorum andTrifolium pretense had short germination date at Bura Borema site and Lenorus is the only plant species with short germination date at Lephis site. There was significant difference (P<0.01) in blooming duration between different species of plants tested in all sites. Aschynomene uniflorum and Sinapis alba hadlong blooming duration
followed by Phacelia tanacetifolia at Adami Tulu Research station and Lephis, whereas, Echuin vulgare and Bacium grandflorum showed short blooming duration at this site. Similarly Aschynomene uniflorum and Sinapis alba showed long blooming durationat Bura Borema followed by Phacelia tanacetifolia and Lenorus. Bee visit was also significantly different (P<0.01) between all plant species. Phacelia tanacetifolia was highly visited by honey bees in all sites, while Lenorus was the least visited forage in all sites followed by Sinapis alba. It is recommended that further demonstration and scale up is required at farmers’ apiary site particularly for Phacelia tanacetifolia, Bacium grandflorum and Aschynomene uniflorum.
Key words: Adaptation, herbaceous, bee forage, mid rift valley, Ethiopia
INTRODUCTION
Bee keeping is one of the important farming activities in Ethiopia since ancient times (Girma, 1998). Previous studies indicated that Ethiopia has longer tradition on beekeeping than any country in the world (Fitchl and Admasu, 1994; Ayalew, 2001; Gezahegn, 2007). Success in bee keeping depends upon many factors, among them availability of bee flora is the fundamental one. Bees obtain nectar, pollen, or both from flowers, which are the mainstay of honeybee’s life (Crane, 1990). The value of flora in bee keeping has been observed in many parts of the world. Ethiopia is a leading honey producer in Africa and one of the ten largest honey producing countries in the world. Despite the favorable agro-ecology for honey production and the number of bee colonies the country is endowed with, the level of honey production and productivity in the country is still low.
The annual average honey production per hive is as low as 6-7 kg. One of the prominent factors for this low honey productivity is traditional hive and lack of improved beekeeping management techniques and expansion of cultivating land which leads to shortage of bee forages. As honeybees require large quantities of nectar and pollen at particular time, they utilize particular species of plants for a limited period of time. Rapid increase in population densities, continuous cultivation, cereal cropping and overgrazing in the mid rift valley areas of Ethiopia, have resulted to severe soil erosion and deforestation. Rate of deforestation in Ethiopia, which amounts to 163,000 - 200,000 ha yr-1, is one of the highest in tropical Africa (Reusing, 1998; Lemenih, 2004). Removal of trees will disrupt the cycle and this in turn leads to drier climate conditions (Collins, 2001). Other undesirable consequences are the undermining of sustainable socio-economic development and loss of biodiversity (Katrien, 2007).
These together with low inputs for production have resulted to shortage of bee forages and poor pastures. There is need therefore to explore other alternatives for improving forage productivity and enhance beekeeping activities in the area. Germination and emergence are the two most important stages in the life cycle of plants that determine the efficient use of the nutrients and water resources available to plants (Gan, 1996). Environmental factors such as temperature, light, pH, and soil moisture are known to affect seed germination (Rizzardi, 2009). On the other hand, temperature and other environmental factors affect the germination and the state of dormancy of the seeds and the seasonal changes of the dormancy state of the seeds of some species is directly related to the seasonal temperature changes (Pons, 1993). Hence this study was designed to evaluate the performance of annual bee forages in different agro-ecological zones of mid rift valley, Ethiopia.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Location
The study was conducted in three districts of the Ethiopian mid rift valley namely: Adami Tulu Jido Kombolcha (ATJK), Arsi Negele and Shashamane Districts. The study area is located within a distance of 160 to 250km south of the capital Addis Ababa (Table 1). The rainfall is bimodal, the long rains occurs from June to September and the short rains are from March to April with peak in July and August, respectively. The study was conducted from June 2011 to January 2012.
Seed sources
Seeds of all plant species were collected from Holeta Bee Research Center, Ethiopia.
Experimental plants and design
Seven species of annual bee forages were used for the study. They were planted at three locations representing wide agro-ecological zones. Each species were planted on 1m×1m plot in three replicate per each site.
Data collection
Data of germination and blooming of each plant species was collected on daily basis for the period of 45 and 120 days, respectively. Data of bee visit was collected twice/day during blooming time on 6:00 AM and 6:00 PM. In order to get the total number of bee visited a plant covering an area of 50×50cm was selected randomly and numbers of bees collecting pollen or nectar were counted per time.
Statistical analysis:
General Linear Model (GLM) procedure of SAS (2004) was used for analyzing data collected during monitoring. Mean comparison was done using the Least Significant Difference (LSD) for parameters with significant difference. Differences were considered statistically significant at 5% level of significant. The model used to analyze the effects of farm scale and parity classes on milk yield, reproductive traits and nutrient intake was:
Yij = μ+ Ai + eij
Where, Yij = response variables
μ = overall mean
Ai = fixed effect of ith species (i= 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
eij = residual effect.
RESULTS
In this study Phacelia tanacetifolia, Sinapis alba, Echuin, Lenorus, Bacium grandflorum, Aschynomene uniflorum and Trifolium pretense were planted in three different agro-ecological zones and mean values for the investigated traits were indicated in table 1, 2 and 3. For illustration of the performance of the forages, two season data from each of the three locations is also presented in Table 1, 2 and 3.
Germination date
Values of germination date (GD) of the plant species are shown in table 1, 2 and 3. There was significant difference (P< 0.01) in germination date among different experimental plant species. Phacelia tanacetifolia, Bacium grandflorum, Trifolium pretenseand Lenorus had the shortest germination date than other plant species at Adami Tulu Research station.
Whereas, Lenorus, Bacium grandflorum and sweet clover had short germination date at Bura Borema site. On the other hand, Lenorus is the only plant species with short germination date at Lephis site. In this study most plant species had long germination date at Lephis site which might be related to low temperature in this site (Table 1). Similar result was showed by Terenti (2004) that the best germination speed in D. eriantha occurred at 30 and 35°C.
Blooming duration
There was significant difference (P<0.01) in blooming duration between different species of plants tested in each site. Aschynomene uniflorum and Sinapis alba hadlong blooming duration followed by Phacelia tanacetifolia at Adami Tulu Research station and Lephis, whereas, Echuin and Bacium grandflorum showed short blooming duration at this site. Similarly Aschynomene uniflorum and Sinapis alba showed long blooming durationat Bura Borema followed by Phacelia tanacetifolia and Lenorus.
Bee visit
There was significant difference (P<0.01) in bee visit between each plant species at all study sites (Table 1, 2 and 3). Phacelia tanacetifolia was highly visited by honey bees in all sites followed by Bacium grandflorum at Bura Borema site. Bacium grandflorum and Aschynomene uniflorum; Bacium grandflorum and Echuin; Sweet clover and Aschynomene were visited moderately at Adami Tulu Research station, Lephis and Bura Borema sites, respectively. Lenorus was the least visited forage in all sites followed by Sinapis alba.
DISCUSSIONS
The study demonstrated considerable variation in performance of different species in different sites. Generally the species Phacelia tanacetifolia, Aschynomene and Bacium grandflorum had high performance with more adaptation than the other species in all the experiments. Lower performance of other species could be possibly due to poor adaptation to the environment. Graves et al. (2010) indicated that environmental conditions may delay reproduction of Echuin vulgare until the plant is three to four years old. Wondwossen (2009) also indicated that different species of plants have variability of performance in lower and higher slopes classes.
CONCLUSION
From this study, good ranges of well adapted bee forage have been identified and could have a high potential for use as bee forage. A good number of species especially the species Phacelia tanacetifolia, Aschynomene-uniflorum and Bacium grandflorumshowed a wide environmental adaptability and did well in all sites. Other main important species which include the Trifolium pretense had a considerable potential at Bura Borema while Echuin vulgare performed exceptionally well at Lephis. However there is need to evaluate these species further to determine their adaptation under irrigation conditions and identify where they could fit and the specific benefits they can contribute in the irrigated systems within mid rift valley region of Ethiopia.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This study was financially supported by Oromia Agricultural Research Institute through Adami Tulu Research Center.
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