Role of Apis cerana Fab. in sunflower pollination

Abstract

Sunflower is cross pollinated crop which attracts lots of pollinators for pollination services. One among them is the Indian bee, Apis cerana Fab. which is widely domesticated in Southern part of India. These are also the Eastern honey bees which belongs to the order Hymenopter and family Apidae. The management practices are easy with this particular bees. Henceforth, sunflower pollination was studied concerned to A. cerana for better yield and quality. In this study, the sunflower was enclosed with A. cerana in a closed condition to avoid other pollinator intervention, in the other treatment sunflower were maintained in open pollinated condition and a control was set where pollinator were restricted. The results recorded significantly higher in both quantitative and qualitative parameters with open pollinated sunflower followed by sunflower enclosed with A. cerana when compared to the sunflower enclosed to avoid pollination. Overall, A cerana can be recommended for the pomegranate pollination for better quality and quantity of sunflower.