THE IMPACT OF BEEKEEPING AND POLLINATION SERVICES ON CROPS YIELD: A STUDY FROM AURANGABAD DISTRICT OF MAHARASHTRA STATE

Agriculture is the backbone of the Indian economy, providing employment, income, and food security to millions of people. With its vast arable land, favorable climate, and abundant water resources, India has immense potential for agricultural growth and development. It contributes around 18% to India's GDP, making it a significant sector in the country's economy. India is self-sufficient in food production, with agriculture providing food grains, fruits, vegetables, and other essential commodities. Despite its potential, the Indian farm sector faces significant productivity challenges due to lack of diversification in farming practices leading to soil degradation and adoption of monoculture farming practices. The productivity also suffers due to low pollination. The honey bee (Apis mellifera) is considered one of the most effective pollinatorÂ’s widespread, frequent visitors for pollinating the crops, also the most frequent floral visitor in natural habitats worldwide. Pollination enables the reproduction of plants facilitating the agriculture production. The decline in crop yield is due to lack of natural pollination. Better crop production studies were undertaken with the introduction of bee boxes in the farm plots resulted increased crop increased crop production and additional revenues from honey and their products. The study was also undertaken to understand the importance of pollination services and its vulnerability in agriculture production facing pollinators decline. The farmerÂ’s survey was conducted in nine districts of Aurangabad district in Maharashtra to assess the economics of bee keeping as pollination management practices adopted by the farmers. In the study soil conditions of selected farms were studied and pollination by bee keeping with bee boxes introduced, involving total 272 farmers engaged in the cultivation of different crops of cereals, vegetables and fruits. The bee boxes were maintained by selected 136 farmers and rest of 136 farms were observed as control, without introduction of bee boxes in their farm plots. The yield comparison was observed to study the effect of bee pollination on the crop yields. The pretested interview of farmers were conducted for farm data collection and documentation by conducting farmerÂ’s interviews and field observations. The results clearly demonstrated that the presence of honey bee boxes shown higher production as compared to the control farm fields. The crop percentage yields were recorded in all the tested farm plots. Pollination by honey bee shown better fruiting, more seeds and higher production, fruiting in vegetables and fruits. The study provides a novel approach in agriculture suggesting integration of bee keeping, can help increase crop productivity, sustainability and profitability.