Sherali Suyarkulov, Fergana Union of beekeepers fspbee@gmail.com

More and more human beings pay attention to the honey bees as a pollinator of plants, primarily of agricultural crops. It cannot be indispensable to obtain harvests without the help of pollinating insects or bees on fewer places on the Earth.

Ever-increasing demand for food which is associated with a significant increase in population has led to the intensification of agricultural production, the use of advanced technologies, increasing productivity and, as a consequence, increasing dependence on chemicals. A chemicalization in agriculture is an excessive and not always cautious utilizing of chemical protection products against pests has led not only to reduction of pests, but also virtually demolished the native pollinators.

A cage on a peach- reticulated cage in a form of bag mounted on a branch of peach (Champion type) in beekeeping farm “Tolibjon-Ganijon asalarichi” in Kuvasoy district, Fergana region.

The honeybees are the most important for pollination of agricultural among all the insects. They provide complete pollination in flowering plants. The honeybees perform 80-95% of pollination in different plants. Wild insects on the flowers, there are usually no more than 10-20% of the pollinators. According to U.S. researchers the dependence of apples, almonds, apricot yield on pollinators is 100%, 10- 90% for other fruit trees, 70-100% for melons and vegetables .Taking into account, there has been the sharp decrease in natural pollinators, due to the reduction or even complete disappearance of their range, intense and using sometimes irresponsibly chemicals to combat pests and the main burden of pollination of crops is on the wings of honeybees.

Different types of insects that use the nectar or pollen for their own food and some for education larvae are unequal in value as pollinators of plants. Flies, beetles, butterflies, equestrians, wasps, sawflies and many other insects that visiting flowers are involved in pollinating of plants. However, they do not collect pollen and nectar in the stock and do not use them for education brood, so their role as pollinators is negligible. Many of them do not have the tools to collect and transfer pollen from flower to flower.

The leading role of honeybees as pollinators is explained that they live in large families throughout the year, and in the summer conditions of our region the number of individuals is increased in these families by 40-50 thousand. During the spring-summer season bees are able to collect a large amount of honey and pollen in stock. To do this, they visit a huge number of flowers, performing a titanic sprinkler work. A working bee at each departure visits 100-150 flowers to collect nectar, and sometimes even more flowers. Thanks to such performance bees from the same family are able to survey the average force per day to 40-50 million flowers. The important factor is that honeybees can be bred by schedule and transported to a place where they are required to protect the processing of crops and plantations chemicals.

The cage on cotton - frame cage 2 x 3 m and 1.2 m high, with metal mesh (with an aperture of 2 mm) mounted on cotton.

Despite of the fact that not much importance has been attached to bees and beekeeping as pollinators of crops in Uzbekistan until recently, yields of most cultivated crops depend on bees for pollination. Especially great need for pollinating bees in fruits, melons, lucerne, canola, cotton and vegetable crops testes series. In addition, self-pollinated crops (grapes, etc.) are cultivated in a large area, which flowers are often visited by bees and are reacted positively to additional pollination.

Calculations showed that the full -pollination by bees of all crop arrays gives a yield increase, the cost of which is 10-12 times higher than the income from direct bee products (honey, beeswax, bee packages, etc.). Bees can be transported at any time to a certain place and arranged so that each array could be pollinated equally. It is necessary to bring up the bees to crops and plantations for 1-2 days before flowering for the most complete and effective pollination.

Apiaries should be placed as close as possible to the arrays of pollinated crops. This reduces downtime and energy for flights, bees improve the conditions of their visit to flowers and pollination efficiency. On large or extended plantations separate apiaries should be removed from each other no more than by 1-2 km, which will provide the most effective range of bee’s expansion (up to 0.5-1 km). This requirement is especially important for the pollination of fruit trees, as they bloom earlier and spreading crowns of trees reduce radius of flying of bees in the garden. In large gardens apiaries are recommended to arrange by groups of 50-60 families at 0.5 km each.

The cages on a brood apiary, installed on apple, made ​​by a mesh bag of cylindrical shape from the metal mesh. Fergana region, breeding apiary.

The magnitude of cross-pollinated crop yield is greatly influenced by the saturation of flowering crops and trees by bees.

The total size of the pollination apiary in the farm depends not only on the area of ​​the plot, but also on the presence of distracting honey flora, weather conditions for the flight of bees, forces of bee colonies and others. The same bees are often used to pollinate several crops that flowering at different times, creating a kind of sprinkler pipe.

There are a lot of data in the literature on the impact of bees on the yield of fruit crops, but these data were obtained mainly in 1950-1970 and mainly in the midland of Russia.

This is particularly relevant question in the Fergana Valley, where in the presence of intensive agriculture, wide and ubiquitous use of pesticides, where almost all lands are ploughed and put into agricultural use and conditions for the existence of wild insects-pollinators are minimized, the role of honeybees as pollinators increases by many times.

The biggest cage.

The biggest cage was required for apricot of Subkhon type size - 6 x 4 meters and a height of 5.2 meters. 10 beehives with 20 bee families were installed around the cage, with 300-400 thousand bees for pollination.

The regional government (municipality) of Fergana Beekeepers Union, with the support of Agrolinks project was assigned a task to examine the effect of honeybees on pollination of entomophilous crops and their productivity in the conditions of industrial agricultural production and intensive use of chemical plants protection products in the Fergana Valley. At the initial stage the Union was tasked to investigate the effect of honeybees on the pollination of fruit trees, cotton and sunflower. Experiments were carried out according to the procedures developed by the Russian Research Institute of beekeeping “The methods of conducting research work in beekeeping” and a method “The research on the efficiency of pollination of crops by bees”.

Table 1.

Influence of bees on pollination of flowers of fruit trees to increase crop yields

In the spring, more than 200 studies were carried out on 9 kinds of fruit trees. The obtained preliminary experimental data differ significantly from those shown in the literature. So, the greatest impact of bees pollination on yield increase was observed in cherries - bees increased fruit yield by 26.4 times. It should be noted that only in one case cherry fruits were obtained in the cage in an amount of 299 flowers, i.e. 2% of the ovary. In all other 10 studies in the cage no fruit grew up.

Plum. The results of experiments on the dwarf plum. Top branch was in the cage, you can see only four fruits, the bottom branch was free for visiting bees.

Similar results were obtained after an experiment on a cherry - yield increase after pollination by honeybees was for 22.5 times more.

In our research a yield of almond in the presence of pollination by bees has increased by 17 times. The almond is the first fruit tree which is in blossom right after the cessation of frost. In this time bees only begin to wake up from winter sleep and are less active, and there are very few of other pollinators in this period because of the cold weather, and respectively, bees are virtually the only pollinators for almond.

Honeybees have high impact on productivity of a plum and apple tree, and respectively, increase in yield is by 11 and 8 times. For bees apple tree is an attractive plant, which gives a pollen and honey, honey harvest from apple orchards reaches 1-1.2 kg in the conditions of the Fergana region in favourable weather. It almost does not have commercial value due to the limited number of gardens and is mainly used for growing young bees.

Apricot has a great importance in the spring honey and pollen balance of the bees. It gives abundant pollen and nectar by blooming right after almond. Additional weight of a control hive during flowering of apricot is usually from 1 to 2 kg, in good years during prolonged sunny weather maximum amount of nectar reached 5 kg from 1 hive within the conditions of the Fergana Valley. Lavish nectar exudation of the apricot attracts not only honey bees, but many other species of insects. In the apricot garden of a Subkhon type in the farm “Bahodir” up to 30% of insects flying on flowers were other types of bees and flies. Without bees an ovary of apricot flowers in experiments under the cage in an average was 1%, while using insects and mostly honey bees the ovary of apricot fruits was equal to 5.9%, i.e. the bees increased yield for 590% or by 5.9 times.

Cherry. The results of researches conducted on the cherries. Above - the control branch is without the cage for free visits by bees. Below – an experienced branch out of the cage without fruits. The initial part of the branches is labelled.

In 2010, with apricot garden of 0.8 hectares per farm " Bahodir " in the absence of bees in a radius of 10 km, was obtained 480 kg of dried apricots , and in 2011 after posing in the garden 10 hives with 20 beehives farmer received 2100 kg of dried apricots almost 4.4 times more. Practically, the profit derived from the bees to the garden setting was at the price of dried apricots $ 2 per 1 kg - 3200 dollars. In fact, this income over $ 3,000 received from the setting in 1 apricot orchard bee family. Similar results were obtained in the next 2 years.

A persimmon is the final flowering fruit tree in spring which also strongly attracts bees to its profuse discharge of nectar. 7 studies using mesh bags-cages were held on in various areas of the Fergana region. Honey bees by pollinating flowers of the persimmon increased a yield by 4.1 times or for 410%. It was observed that some fruits that were knitted without bees in the cage over time are subject to more debris in comparison to fruits pollinated by bees.

In recent years, intensive gardens are widely implemented to agricultural production in Uzbekistan by using water-saving technologies. The research studies on the impact of productivity of bees on yield were conducted on dwarf apple trees of Golden Green type, imported from Serbia. Numerous conducted studies indicate about increase of apple yield for 316% or by 3.16 times after pollination by bees.

Dwarf apple trees. Calculation of research results on dwarf apple trees.

A large number of experiments were conducted on peaches. But due to the fact that peach trees to a greater extent are exposed to self-pollination, as expected, the impact of honey bees on the ovary peach fruits was minimal – the productivity increased for only 19%.

During the summer, preliminary studies also were conducted on commercial crops – on cotton and sunflower.

Cotton is one of the main cultivated industrial crops in Uzbekistan and nearly half of irrigated areas of the country is arranged to cultivation of these cultures. It is believed that on average cotton is dependent on insect pollinators only for 20 % and 80 % share belongs to honeybees. However, this effect was sufficient to significantly increase the productivity of cotton.

In the 70s it was found that cross-pollination by bees increases the yield of cotton for 19-33%. In the lack of pollinators seeds are knitted due to self pollination. But it reduces the productivity of seeds and fibres.

Table 2

The effect of pollination by bees on cotton yield

Investigations were carried out in different areas of the Fergana region on “Sultan” type С6524 and Ан 35 in three repeats. Mesh cages with a size of 2 x 3 m and a height of 1.2 m were constructed on cotton fields before flowering. It was used a metal net with clusters of 2-2,5 mm, that prevents the bees to present in the experimental plots , whereas it is practically had no effect on a wind. Near experienced plot there was the same one arranged for control. Number of plants on the plots, farming techniques, irrigation and fertilization were almost identical. The number of cotton bolls after pollination by bees in average has increased for 43%, flower wastes were decreased by almost twice and the mass of cotton in one box increased for 13%. In general, the yield of cotton under the influence of bees increased for 56%. Weight of cotton seeds after pollination by bees has increased for 15 %. In these regards, such qualitative indicators of cotton fibre like length, microware and fibre yield and fat content in seeds remained almost unchanged.

It is easy to calculate a cost-effectiveness of such agricultural and technical practice like pollination of cotton by bees. In the absence of distracting medullary it is enough to arrange 1-2 bee colonies per 1 ha of cotton. U.S. scientists believe that on average cotton is only for 20 % dependent on insect pollinators where 80% of share belongs to honeybees. In other words, the proportion of the impact of bees on cotton yield under all other agronomic conditions is 16%, which is by 3 times below the experimental results obtained by us. Even relying on these underestimated data, with the average yield of cotton fields at 30 centner/ha, honeybees increase cotton yield for 4.8 centner/ha. Taking into account the cost of harvesting cotton equals to $0.4 per 1 kg, increase in yield obtained by bees on each hectare is $192. In fact, it is a profit derived by cotton growers because of arranging of 1-2 bee families to their fields.

Dwarf apple 7+21. Number of apples in the control was 21 fruits and experimental under the net was7 fruits.

The apiary of 50-60 long hives, consisting of 100-150 bee colonies, arranged to the beginning of flowering on the cotton fields pollinates them effectively within a radius of 1 km. If we assume that 60% of the territory is occupied by other crops, roads, canals and structures then then territory for the cotton fields is about 125-130 hectares. Additional yield obtained by the bees will be: 125 ha x 4.8 centner = 600 centner or in cumulative terms is $24,000. In other words, each hive arranged for the cotton field, consisting of 2-3 bee colonies, gives $400-500 as a profit. For efficient use of such agronomic practice like pollination where a cotton grower does not require any additional material costs - good attitude to the beekeeper is enough through giving him a place under the trees to arrange the apiary and guarantee that bees would not be poisoned from pesticides.

Similar work was conducted on sunflower fields, where the mesh cage with a size 2 x 3 m but the height of 2.5 m was installed in Kuvasay district.

Table 3

The effect of pollination by bees on sunflower yields

35 sunflower stalks were under the cage, the control plot was picked nearby. The cage was installed before flowering period and removed at harvesting time. 0.95 kg of seeds was obtained from the pilot area where the bees did not participate in pollination, whereas in the control field, with a free visit of the bees, 2.17 kg was received or yield was higher by 2.3 times. The seeds under the net were small and most of them were empty, whereas seeds pollinated by the bees were full and heavier, and the excess in weight for 70.5% proved it. The cross-pollination also led to an increase of a quality indicator - fat content increased for 14%.

It is easier to calculate the cost-effectiveness of pollination by honeybees a sunflower – the yield is gathered once, the flowering period is relatively short. According to scientists a sunflower crop is 100% dependent on insect pollinators where 90% of share is occupied by honeybees. A white variety of the sunflower has been cultivated on this field and a selling price after cleaning and peeling was $1 per 1 kg.

Theoretically, the yield from sunflowers without pollination by bees could amount 15.8 c / ha (0.95 kg: 6 m2 x 10000m2 = 15.8 c / ha). The yield from the reference field pollinated by bees had to make - 36.2 c / ha (2.17 kg: 6 m2 x 10000m2 = 36.2 c / ha). Thus, the bees helped to get additionally more than 20 c / ha of the yield.

But actually 27 c / ha has been harvested from this field that is due to inevitable losses during harvesting, peeling, storage, etc. The bees pollinating these fields of sunflowers gave an additional 27 c / ha - 15.8 c / ha = 11, 2 c / ha of the crop that is 1,120 dollars of extra profit per hectare.

Summarizing the researches and taking them as a preliminary result on the effect of honey bees to pollination of flowers of fruit trees and industrial crops, the following could be concluded:

Under the conditions of intensive farming and widespread ploughing , lack of virgin areas that are the place of existence and reproduction of wild insects-pollinators and their sharp decline , the role of honeybees as pollinators of crops repeatedly increases and in many cases honeybees are the only possible source of pollination ;

- Chemistry of agricultural production, an excessive and not always justified use of chemical protection against insect pests has led not only to reduction of the pests , but also virtually destroyed the insect pollinators as it is evidenced by the repeated increase in yield of fruit trees under the influence of pollination by honeybees ;

- To conduct an explanatory work on the use of honeybees as pollinators among farmers;

- The priority in beekeeping should be directed to the use of bees as pollinators of crops that benefit 10-20 times greater than the income derived from bee products.