Efficiency of Stingless Bee Pollination (Tetragonula laeviceps) on Cultivation of Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) And Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) with Intercropping System

• Main Author: (nim : 11414028), NOVITASARI
• Format: Final Project
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/29736
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

<p align="justify"> Intercropping systems tend to balance the economic and ecological feasibility of farming system as one of the prerequisites for sustainable agriculture. On the other hand, pollination using stingless bees (Tetragonula laeviceps) also has the potential to improve the quantity and quality of the resulting fruits. The observation on pollination effect of T. laeviceps was carried out on 10 plants with a total of 100 flowers from each selected tomato and cucumber plant. Observation on the open pollination focussed on Apis cerana. The variables observed in this study were visitation rate, foraging rate, and flower handling time on tomato and cucumber flower, pollination efficiency, diameter, length, weight, and number of seeds as well as organoleptic test. The results showed that no bees visited tomato flowers due to high preference of bees to cucumber and other flowers at the study area. The pollination efficiency of tomatoes with open polination (83%) was higher than closed pollination (53%). The efficiency of pollination of cucumber with T. laeviceps polinator was 14% while pollination efficiency with open pollination was 73%. Based on statistical test result using Mann Whitney test to parameter diameter, length, weight, number of seeds done to cucumber fruit, there were no significant differences between both pollination groups. However, the results obtained show that the length, weight, and number of seeds produced by cucumber with T.laeviceps polinator is 3.6% higher for length, 6.6% for weight, and 2.2% for the number of seeds. The organoleptic test showed high preference of panelists on the cucumber produced with the help of T. laeviceps pollinator compared with open pollination. Open pollination in tomato plants produces fruits with a higher diameter, length, and weight and is significantly different than that of close pollination. <p align="justify">