Honey bees for enhancing vegetable seed production

Abstract

Bees are a gift from nature to farmers because they play a crucial role in the development of sustainable agriculture and horticulture. They aid in crosspollination of crops, increase yield with high-quality crop production, and produce superior seeds in horticultural crops, particularly in vegetables. In addition to increasing vegetable output, honey bees also help to increase seed production. In radish, the seed production increases 22-100% by bee pollination whereas in cabbage and cucumber the value ranges from 100-300 and 21.1-411%, respectively. Furthermore, honey bee pollination boosts cauliflower, radish, lettuce, and mustard seed weight and pod setting. In addition to pollination by bees (Apis mellifera), honey and its other by-products, including bee pollen, bee wax, propolis, royal jelly, and bee venom, provide income for Indian farmers.