Abstract

HUARINGA, Daniel. Effect of three pollination techniques on yield in 4-year-old Oil Palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.). Rev. Inv. Cs. Agro. y Vet. [online]. 2022, vol.6, n.17, pp.300-309.  Epub Aug 02, 2022. ISSN 2664-0902.  https://doi.org/10.33996/revistaalfa.v6i17.169.

Oil palm is a crop with a growing increase in production. The deficient fruit production during the first years of this crop is due to the low presence of male inflorescences and therefore a low population of pollinating insects. The objective of this study was to compare pollination techniques to increase oil palm yield during the first 4 years of production. Three pollination techniques were evaluated to improve yields: natural pollination, directed entomophilous pollination and assisted pollination. Five replicates per treatment were assigned and the design used was a DCA. The Minitab17 statistical software was used for data analysis. The variables considered were: bunch weight, number of normal fruits, number of red and white parthenocarpic fruits, and number of aborted fruits. The statistical analysis indicated significant differences (p<0.05) for the variables bunch weight, number of normal fruits and number of white parthenocarpic fruits; while for the variables number of red parthenocarpic fruits and number of aborted fruits no significant differences were found (p>0.05). In the comparative analysis of averages, the treatment with directed entomophilous pollination proved to be superior to the rest. The results indicate that directed entomophilous pollination may be the solution to improve the low yield of oil palm during its first years of production. In conclusion, in the present trial, directed entomophilous pollination improved production parameters in a young oil palm plantation.

Keywords : Parthenocarpic fruits; Insect pollinators; Oil palm; Assisted pollination; Directed entomophilous pollination.

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