Development and testing of mechanical pollinator for bell pepper in controlled environment agriculture
Paper Details
Development and testing of mechanical pollinator for bell pepper in controlled environment agriculture
Abstract
Off-season production of sweet pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) can achieve recommended consumption with high profit. The process of transfer of pollen grains from the male anther of a flower to the female stigma is known as pollination process. Usually it requires greenhouses construction. Many crops rely on insect pollination. However, insects are commonly not possible in greenhouses due to their control environment, which is a major pollination problem that can decrease fruit size and yield by directly reducing pollen deposition. To avoid this issue, a handy mechanical pollinator was developed with main components; DC motor, rod, battery (4 volts), cam on DC motor, oscillating device, switch, wires, battery connectors and rubber band at Faculty of Agricultural Engineering and Technology. For testing of machine an experiment was conducted at Institute of Hydroponic Agriculture, PMAS-Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi in cropping season of 2018-19. It was experimentally manipulated artificial/mechanical pollination and its performance was compared with self-pollination. Data were recorded on diameter of fruits (cm), fruit weight per plant (kg), yield (t/ha). For statistical analysis, Statistix. 8.1 software was used by selecting Complete Randomized Design (CRD) with five repeats. All the parameters measured differed significantly. Artificial pollination increased fruit size, suggesting hypothesis that sufficient pollination increases plant fitness.
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Copyright © 2019 by the Authors. This article is an open access article and distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) license.