**4. Conclusion**

*Modern Beekeeping - Bases for Sustainable Production*

and conservation of biodiversity [26].

the value of all the hive products.

**3.5 Beekeeping for the crop production**

crops among many other agricultural crops [27].

diverse crop yield, both quantitatively and qualitatively [30].

the world. It helps in diversification of source of incomes for rural communities that help minimize the demands of land and pressure on forests. It requires little capital input, so it does not compete with other aspects of the farm system for the scarce resource [19]. Beekeeping has gained much attention as a means of raising the productivity of farm systems in the developing world. Beekeeping can also form the basis for gaining and transmitting knowledge about ecological processes [25]. Beekeeping can contribute to the pollination services, assuring crop yields, and can also be used to strengthen the livelihoods through commercialization to increase economic revenue. Beekeeping contributes to the provision of pollination services, assuring crop yields, and helping maintaining plant biodiversity in natural ecosystems. Honeybee pollination has been reported to increase seed production in oilseed, rapeseed, and sunflower seed, as well as the oil content in the seed, and beekeeping activity provides benefits in terms of employment, pollination of crops,

The ecological importance of bees in crop pollination and the preservation of the biodiversity of both flora and fauna are unquestionable. Pollination is a valuable ecosystem service for the production of fruits, vegetables, nuts, cotton, and oilseed

The loss of insect pollinators has greater potential consequences on human food production directly through reduced crop yields. In these contexts of pollinator's declines, beekeeping contributes to the provision of pollination services, assuring crop yields and helping maintaining plant biodiversity in natural ecosystems [27]. Honeybees are the most efficient pollinators for the self-incompatible and crosspollinated crops, which ensure the pollination services by maintaining the abundance of the pollinators during the flowering period [31]. The self-pollinated crops may also produce higher yields with good quality seeds showing their hybrid vigor without any alteration in the innate properties of fruits and seeds [7]. As managed insects, honeybee colonies are less vulnerable to several pressures affecting wild pollinators [32], thus can provide alternative insurance in case of wild pollinator losses, and effective service provision where wild pollinator populations are suboptimal. The value from the crop pollination by the honeybees is much higher than

Both domesticated honeybees species *Apis cerana* and *Apis mellifera* are being utilized for pollinating fruits, vegetables, oilseeds, and cereals crops. Pollination by honeybees increases fruit set, enhances fruit quality, and reduces fruit drop in apple, peach, plum, citrus, kiwi, and strawberry. Reports have also indicated an increase in fruit juice and sugar content in citrus fruits. The beekeeping has higher advantages in the crop production; however, integration of managed crop pollina-

Beekeeping and honey production in Nepal is still under development stage. Due to the climatic suitability and being a more profitable business, many farmers from

tion as a component of agricultural development strategies is missing.

**3.6 Future prospects and potential of beekeeping**

Bees and other pollinators make important contributions to agriculture. Generally, the insect pollination contributes 35% of global yield of the agricultural production of 87 of the leading food crops worldwide [28]. The pollination-dependent crops seem to be five times more valuable than those that do not need pollination [29]. Honeybees are the single most important insect pollinator species for the

**90**

The varied diversity of ecological zones in Nepal, from the plains to the mountains favors the beekeeping. The beekeeping has been increased during a decade and the competitive market opportunities exist in the honey and honey products from the Nepal developed the domestic and international markets and reaching growing consumer not only in Nepal, but also large adjacent markets in India and China fetching good prices. The price of the honey was increased around 10 times during the 15 years period of beekeeping. Thus, beekeeping helps to earn the income and provides the self-employment opportunities to the poor and rural people, helping in the poverty eradication. Along this, bees are the major pollinator, which increases the crop yield that helps to attain the agricultural sustainable goals and creates the ecological balances by conserving the biodiversity. Beekeeping sectors show the high-growth potential of small enterprises with a holistic service offering, seeking to enable product, process, and business model innovation, thereby accelerating their growth and job creation and providing the pollination services increasing the crop yields. We can conclude that a new perspective relationship between

beekeeping and crop pollination, emphasizing that pollinator deficit can be mitigated through beekeeping, which enhances the livelihoods of farmers through greater crop yields and economic benefit received by selling bee products.
