103 Pollinators diversity and pollination effects on yield attributes of sunflower (Helianthus annuus Linnaeus) in Odisha, India Deepayan Padhy *1 , Chitta Ranjan Satapathy 2 , Shimantini Borkataki 3 , Tanmoy Shankar 4 , Soumik Ray 5 , Manish Kumar Yadav 1 , Rajesh Kalasare 4 , Goutam B. Hosamani 1 and V. Ramalakshmi 1 1 Department of Entomology, M.S. Swaminathan School of Agriculture, Centurion University of Technology and Management 761211, Odisha, India 2 Department of Entomology, College of Agriculture, Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology, Bhubaneswar 751003, Odisha, India 3 Department of Entomology, Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat 785013, Assam, India 4 Department of Agronomy, M.S. Swaminathan School of Agriculture, Centurion University of Technology and Management 761211, Odisha, India 5 Department of Agricultural Economics and Statistics, M.S. Swaminathan School of Agriculture, Centurion University of Technology and Management 761211, Odisha, India Email: deepayan28@cutm.ac.in, deepayanpadhy28@gmail.com ABSTRACT: In the study on the diversity of pollinators and their pollination efficiency in sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) under field condition of Odisha during 2021-22, recorded 18 species of pollinators. Indian honeybee, Apis cerana indica F. (Hymenoptera, Apidae) was found to be the major one among the insect pollinators. The experiment conducted for two years with three different treatments viz., open pollination (OP), managed A. cerana indica pollination (HB) and pollinator exclusion (PE) for better yield and quality revealed that both quantitative and qualitative parameters were significantly higher in OP sunflower crops followed by crops pollinated by A. cerana indica. Significantly higher seed yield, 1000 seed weight, percentage of seed filling and number of seed per capitulum were recorded in these treatments. These findings indicate OP and HB increase 33 per cent more yield in sunflower. © 2024 Association for Advancement of Entomology KEY WORDS: Species, Apis cerana indica, open pollination, seed yield, seed filling, capitulum * Author for correspondence © 2024 Association for Advancement of Entomology https://doi.org/10.33307.entomon.v49i1.1043 ENTOMON 49(1): 103-108 Article No. ent. 49111 INTRODUCTION Healthy population of pollinators is essential to maintain biodiversity and healthy natural ecosystems. They are vital for the pollination of cultivated plants including agricultural crops and horticultural plants. Furthermore, the plants and wildlife supported directly and indirectly through diversity of pollinators and provide other ecosystem services. Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) is an important edible oilseed crop, being a diploid having chromosome number, 2n = 34 belong to the family Asteraceae (Compositae). Presently, sunflower is cultivated in India in an area of 2.240 lakh ha with