author(s)
Babita Kaushal, Kiran Rana, Meena Thakur and Davinder

abstract
Bumblebees are found to be most efficient and reliable pollinators for protected crop as they work well under adverse conditions of weather, possess long tongues, have capacity to forage at low light intensities and temperatures. Most strawberry varieties are self-compatible and stigmas become receptive before the anthers of the same flower release pollen, so that allogamy can take place. To ensure complete pollination, pollen grains must be delivered to each female part of the flower individually. Smaller or deformed berries might result from incomplete pollination in each pistil, resulting in a lower yield of marketable fruit. The flower produces nectar at the base of stamens which are suitable for bumblebees as they have long tongues. In this experiment bumblebees were used for pollinating strawberry crop under protected condition. Bio-chemical parameters of strawberry were recorded for bumblebee pollination which were found to be better as compared to control as higher TSS (11.32%), TSS/acidity ratio (23.26%), total sugars (7.60%), reducing sugars (6.26%) and non-reducing sugars (1.38%) were recorded in B. haemorrhoidalis pollination and accounted an increase of 16.26, 30.09, 6.18, 07.98 and 8.02 per cent, respectively over control.