A STUDY CASE OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BEE POLLINATION, BIOLOGICAL CONTROL OF PESTS AND DISEASES AND SOYBEAN YIELD
abelha, soja, controle biológico
Brazil is the world’s largest producer and exporter of soybeans (Glycine max (L.) Merrill), with an estimated production of 166 million tons, occupying ca. 47 million hectares (Conab, 2025). Although it is considered a self-pollinating species, several soybean cultivars show increased yield when pollinated by bees. This study was carried out at Fazenda Vale Verde in Capão Bonito-SP, during the 2021/22, 2022/23, and 2023/24 growing seasons, to evaluate the impact on soybean yield of visits of Apis mellifera bees to soybean flowers, thus providing supplementary pollination, associated or not to biological management using Koppert Integrated System. Four treatments were tested, as follows: a) control without bees; b) control plus bees; c) biological management plus bees; and d) biological management without bees, with six repetitions. Each plot, located inside a soybean field, consisted of 8 soybean rows measuring 6 meters in length. The plots were located at distances starting from a beehive, or from a specific point (in the case of the control treatment without bees) at the field edge. The distances considered were 25m, 50m, 100m, and 200m, totaling 96 plots. The cultivar used was BrasMax Zeus - 55I57 RSF IPRO. The results revealed that bee pollination significantly increased soybean yield compared to treatments without bees, with the biological management plus bees treatment showing the highest yield increase, particularly in the 2021/22 season with 58% increment (SIK+BEE at 25m: 7047.6 kg/ha) compared to the control (CONTROL at 200m: 4448.1 kg/ha). Furthermore, bee visits also increased, especially in the SIK+BEE treatment, highlighting the effectiveness of biological management and the positive impact of hive proximity.