Indian origin ecologist leads project to improve crop yield in India

Reading University teams with M.S. Swaminathan Foundation; plants flowers alongside cash crops to attract insects, stimulate pollination

Dr Deepa Senapathi who heads the Reading University ( UK) project on floral interventions in moringa plantations /

Flower power – a term that was much used in the 1960s, symbolising peace within the hippie culture – assumes a whole new, literal, meaning today in the farms and fields of TamilNadu and Puducherry in India.

A team from the University of Reading in the UK, led by Dr Deepa Senapathi, head of the department of sustainable land management, along with researchers of the Chennai-headquartered MS Swaminathan Research Foundation, has announced success in improving yield and quality of crops like mango and moringa ( Muringai in Tamil, commonly known as drumstick), by planting marigold, sun flower, sesame( kadugu, in Tamil), cow pea (Thatta payir), red gram (Thuvarai), or black gram ( Ulundhu) as companions or co-crops.

Marigold planted amidst moringa in a Tamil Nadu field

This increased the abundance and variety of bees and insects that visited these companion crops, and improved pollination of the main crops: The moringa pods were bigger; harvestable fruits increased by 30 percent.

The research team worked with multiple smallholder farmers -- and for academic rigour monitored 12 farms where companion marigold and red gram crops were planted and 12 which had no co-flowering companions.

In a YouTube video created by Reading University, farmers attest to the increased yield of their crops when pollinated by insects which visited the companion crops – and say they got a bonus: they could sell the co-crops too.

A tested technique in the UK

Dr Senapathi, an alumnus of Women's Christian College, Chennai and Madras University who obtained her PhD from the University of Reading in 2009 says: “Planting wildflowers on agricultural land is a tried and tested method seen in many arable fields and orchards in the UK and across Europe.

This farming technique is known to boost insect pollinator numbers. We worked with farmers in South India to design the best co-flowering crops and boost the numbers of native bees and other insect pollinators visiting the moringa orchards.”

The study was supported by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) funding from the Global Challenges Research Foundation to examine if research evidence from the UK could be applied to tropical locales and is seen as improving farm productivity without the use of chemical pesticides and fertilisers.

The results of the first India-based study of this kind is published today ( November 28) in the Journal of Applied Ecology by ecologists of Reading University and MSSRF. (Dhandapani, S., Pakkirisamy, M., Rajaraman, R., Garratt, M. P. D., Potts, S. G., Raj, R., Subramanian, M., & Senapathi, D. (2023). Floral interventions enhance flower visitor communities and pollination services in moringa plantations. Journal of Applied Ecology, 00, 1–13)