Pollination deficit in mango orchards at multan,Pakistan

Mango,mangifera indica is an indigenous fruit of the indian sub-continent,where it has been cultivated for thousands of years. in pakistan it is grown mainly in sindh and southern punjab. despite its long history of cultivation the potential yield has not been achieved. mango is dependent on insect pollinators to set fruit. farmers in pakistan are generally not aware of pollination needs of mango. a study was conducted in different orchards of multan for relationship of different pollinator groups with the crop. it was observed that fruit weight and fruit quality is enhanced with increasing number of visitors per panicle,as well as vice versa. similarly inter-cropping was also strongly associated with the average number of visitors. it can also be concluded that inter-cropping attracted pollinators which increased the fruit weight and quality. moreover,inter cropping also increased the number of observed hives. same trend was also observed between number of hives and floral diversity at the orchards. conclusively,it can be depicted safely that intercrop,diversity and average number of visiting pollinators contributed positively to the fruit weight and fruit quality. pollinators collected from multan belonged to seventeen different species under 15 genera and 07 families. ceratina binghami apparently seems to be the dominant bee species followed by apis andreniformis though no significant difference was observed. among flies,episyrphus balteatus seems to be dominant fly visiting mango orchards compared to other pollinators. copy 2016 zoological society of pakistan.