REPORTS / MEMIOGRAPH

Plant Pollinators of Himachal Pradesh, K.L. Kakkar, Regional Centre, Dr. Y.S. Parmar University of Horticulture & Forestry, Mashobra, Shimla

The work deals with plant pollinators of Himachal Pradesh. The value of achieving the desired pollination through planned use of honey bees lies in their effect to increase yield as well as improving the quality of seed and fruits produced.  Keeping in view this, extent of dependence of plants on bees and insects for crop pollination and number of bee colonies required per unit area for optimum pollination is of immense value in many crops. Studies conducted during the last 2-3 decades have established the role of honey bees for the production of honey and pollination.  Bee keeping for the production of honey has been found successful on commercial scale when honey bees are migrated to plains during winter.  The state of Himachal Pradesh is gifted with bee flora which provides a variety of honey.  The important flora identified for commercial bee keeping is Cedrus toona (toon), Plectranthus and  Rosa  spp. The commercial bee keeping has been successfully employed by landless laborers and unemployed youth.  The studies showed that there is lot of potential in bee keeping in the state.  The Asian bee, Apis cerana is well established in the wall hives where it is being exploited in the state.The report contains a number of colored plates/figures depicting plant pollinators.  The study suggests that there is need to create awareness among farmers/orchardists for protecting the native pollinators from pesticides and recommended that private entrepreneurs should be encouraged to keep large number of colonies for renting to farmers for pollinations.

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