RESEARCH ARTICLE Pollinator Limitation and Crop Production: Experimental Observations on Few Economically Important Vegetable Crops in West Bengal, India Ritam Bhattacharya 1 • Parthiba Basu 1,2 Received: 18 July 2016 / Revised: 18 September 2016 / Accepted: 25 September 2016 Ó Zoological Society, Kolkata, India 2016 Abstract Pollination limitation and its impact on agricul- tural production is a serious concern of recent time. Assessment of the extent of dependency of various polli- nator dependent crops on insect pollination assumes importance in this context. On the other hand, measures for restoring the pollination service needs to be explored for sustainable production of economically important crops particularly for the benefit of the small and marginal farmers. The present study aimed to assess the extent of insect pollinator dependency of brinjal (eggplant) fruit production and impact of honey bee (Apis cerana F) box introduction on the production in vegetable farms of North 24 Parganas, West Bengal, India. Through a pollinator exclusion experiment using enclosures it was found that brinjal fruit production reduces by 54.5 % when they are pollinator limited. This finding is in contrast with earlier report of 25 % dependency. The flower density in a polli- nator limited environment was observed to increase by 31 %. This might be plant’s response to pollinator limita- tion where the plant invests more on reproductive structure than vegetative structures. However, this requires further exploration. Introduction of bee boxes in brinjal, pumpkin and pointed gourd farms showed significant increase in fruit production. This indicates both pollination limitation as well as the need for increasing the pollinators in the crop field for sustainable crop production. Keywords Pollinator limitation Á Apis cerana Á Bee box Á Vegetable fruit production Á Brinjal Á Pumpkin Á Pointed gourd Introduction Insect mediated pollination plays a key role in production of 70 % of world’s agricultural crops (Roubik 1995). A wide range of vegetable crops are dependent on insect pollination (Aizen et al. 2008; Basu et al. 2011) and there has been rising concern about their yield loss due to declining pollinator populations (Allen-Wardell et al. 1998; Kearns et al. 1998; Gallai et al. 2009). Factors associated with agricultural intensification, e.g. loss of semi natural vegetation and use of synthetic chemical pesticides, have been implicated as major drivers of pollinator loss (Fazal 2000; Shaw and Satish 2007). Due to the fact that intensive agricultural areas have little natural or semi natural vege- tation, crop plants provide valuable food resources for the pollinating insects (Hines and Hendrix 2005; Potts et al. 2005). On the other hand, abundance and diversity of pollinators are also crucial for reproduction in crop plants (Alarco ´n 2010). Assessment of the extent of yield loss due to loss of pollination service is crucial in a given agro- ecological context. Alongside such evaluation it is also important to investigate to what extent pollination amendment can restore the yield loss in the same agro- ecosystem. Vegetable farming in India has intensified over past decades. India ranks second in vegetables production in the & Parthiba Basu bparthib@gmail.com Ritam Bhattacharya itisrb@gmail.com 1 Ecology Research Unit, Department of Zoology, University of Calcutta, 35-Ballygunge Circular Road, Kolkata 700019, India 2 Department of Zoology & Centre for Pollination Studies, University of Calcutta, 35-Ballygunge Circular Road, Kolkata 700019, India 123 Proc Zool Soc DOI 10.1007/s12595-016-0189-4 T H E Z O O L O G I C A L S O C I E T Y K O L K A T A