Welcome to AICRP on Honeybee
Realizing the importance of honey bees and their role in enhancing the agricultural production and productivity, National Commission on Agriculture during 1976 recommended the starting of a project entitled “All India Coordinated Project on Honeybee Research & Training”, which was launched by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research in 1980-81. The coordinating centers of the Project started functioning at different locations under the Project Coordinating unit located at the then Central Bee Research Institute (CBRI), Pune, presently designated as Central Bee Research & Training Institute (CBRTI), Pune with an objective to coordinate, counsel and monitor the activity of cooperating centre. The PC unit at CBRTI, Pune continued to function from 1980-81 to 1987 and then shifted to CCS, HAU, Hisar, Haryana where it functioned from 1987-88 to October 2013. A new centre was added in the VIII plan at Kerala Agricultural University, Trivandrum. Besides the honey bees, there are many non Apis bees, insects and animals which contribute to potential yield enhancement of several cross pollinated crops.
News/Events
- Managed bee pollination for harvesting more apples
Telangi, a small village in hilly tracts of Kinnaur district, Himachal Pradesh dominated by tribal farmers growing apple in their small land holdings. Surveys on the constraints in the apple production in the village by Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Reckong Peo identified pollination deficit as the major reason for low yields of apple orchards due to poor pollinizer ratio and lack of sufficient pollinators in orchards for effective pollination. Krishi Vigan Kendra, Reckong Peo in collaboration with AICRP (Honeybees and Pollinators), Solan centre have organized one day awareness camp on pollination management in apple orchards to the tribal farmers and distributed 60 Apis mellifera colonies under TSP funding for pollination of 40 ha of apple orchards.
(A)Honey bees and their management
(a) Seasonal management,
Apis mellifera
- Performance of mellifera was studied different agro-climatic zones of Punjab.
- The colonies of mellifera introduced to Kerala and they survived well under the weather conditions of Kerala. The indigenous A. cerana as well as the exotic A. mellifera colonies were subjected to studies for their peak activity in a day, variation in their development period, sources of food etc
- Comparative performance of mellifera colonies on Bt and non- Bt cotton was studied which revealed about equal sealed brood survival (83.58 – 87.27 %) leading to worker bees’ emergence though the larval survival.
