author(s)
Amanullah Tantray and Amrita KumarI

abstract
Pollination is most important process for the efficiency of the vast majority of the yields in agrarian and horticultural ecosystems. Apple inflorescence needs assistance from insect pollinators like honey bees to carry out the process of pollination and hence more the number of pollinators, higher the chance for better crop quality and yield. Research was carried out to analyze the effect of pollinators on qualitative and quantitative parameters of apple in Kashmir. Three colonies of Apis mellifera L. were placed in two different orchards with pollinizer ratio of 5% and 10%. Data yielded revealed that the controlled release of three hive units in orchard with 10 per cent pollinizer ratio showed significantly better results both quantitatively and qualitatively, for example fruit size (78.733±0.255mm), fruit diameter (77.732±0.687 mm), fruit weight (237.285±5.702 g), fruit volume (250.476±3.904 ml) and fruit colour (98.95%) as compared to naturally pollinated orchards with 10% pollinizer proportion. Similarly, controlled release with three hives in orchard with 5% pollinizer proportion also gives a standard quality fruit (size; 72.744±0.792mm and diameter; 72.595±0.184mm) with a good commercially profitable yield (256 kg/tree) over naturally pollinated orchard (5% pollinizer proportion). These studies revealed that in orchards with inadequate pollinizer ratio, growers can increase their quality and yield by controlled release of three hives of Apis mellifera which can significantly increase the production and can improve the quality of fruit.