Economic impact of extensive pollination through honey bee in peach orchard

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted to find out the effect of bee foraging in peach crop during 2006 to 2010 under agro-climatic conditions of Doon Valley. The two treatments (with honey bee and without honey bee boxes) were imposed to Sanpedro peach orchard at pink bud stage. The higher number of fruit set per tree (527.50), number of fruits at harvest (464.08), yield (22.03 kg/tree) and minimum fruit drop per tree (14.38%) were observed with bees which were significantly better as compare to without bees. The per hectare return with higher B: C ratio was also observed in peach cultivation in with bee’s treatment.