Indian Honey bee Apis cerana Himalaya -an efficient pollinator of underutilized horticulture crop, chow-chow in Meghalaya, India

Relative abundance of insect pollinators revealed that Indian honey bee, Apis cerana Himalaya was the most abundant pollinator of chow-chow and foraged the crop from 600 to 1700 h on the flower. Additionally, during foraging Indian honey bee visited more male flower in comparison to female flowers but it spent more time on female flower. Efficacy of Indian honey bee as a pollinator was confirmed by studying the pollen removal from anther, pollen carrying capacity and pollen deposition on stigma by honey bees. All the parameters supported that honey bees have crucial role in transferring or carrying pollen and pollination of chow-chow although the data was dependent on number of visits. Cage experiment also corroborated that managed Indian honey bee pollination increase the qualitative and quantitative yield of chow-chow up to 197%.