Pollination: An effective tool for reducing fruit drop and improving fruit quality

Abstract

Insect pollination is important for food production globally and apples are one of the major fruit crops which are reliant on this ecosystem service. If apple production is to be successful it is essential that abundant crop of large high quality fruits are set on trees, in every year. It is fundamentally important that the full range of benefits of insect pollination to crop production are understood, if the costs of interventions aiming to enhance pollination are to be compared against the costs of the interventions themselves. Most previous studies have simply assessed the benefits of pollination to crop yield and ignored quality benefits and how these translate through to economic values. By ensuring adequate pollination of apple flowers we can increase yield and improve fruit quality of apple to the large extent.