Abstract-During the past few decades there has been renewed interest in pepino cultivation both in the Andean

Pollinators are vital for world biodiversity and their contribution to agricultural productivity is immense. Pollinators are globally declining with reports such as colony collapse being documented. Citrus exhibits a varying degree of pollination requirements due to its vast cultivars being developed all the time. The article intends to understand the breeding system of a few commercially important Citrus groups and discern its dependency on pollination services. The threat related to pollinator decline to the Citrus industry is measured not only by its reliance on pollinators but also the requirement of the consumers and manufacturers who mostly seek seedless varieties. Therefore, the threat can be tackled by developing high-quality seedless varieties where pollination requirement is absent. Although the importance of pollinators on several self-incompatible varieties cannot be negated, the impact of pollinator decline on its production will entirely depend upon the demand of the market.

Begonia satrapis was studied for its pollination aspects at Sumbuk, Sikkim, India.  The floral details and the foraging behaviour of insects visiting the flowers were examined to define the pollination syndrome and its functionality for the success of sexual reproduction in this species.  The flowers do not produce nectar and offer only pollen as floral reward to foraging insects.  Therefore, male flowers were foraged more for its pollen than the female flowers.  There was a significant difference in the visit to male and female flowers by both Apis florea and Bombus breviceps, respectively.  The bees spent more time on male flowers than on female flowers.  The bees appear to rely on visual stimuli to visit male and female flowers.  The plant produces abundant fruit and seed set in both hand and open-pollinations indicating that it is facultatively xenogamous. The female flowers lacking any reward resemble male flowers and in effect are pollinated by deceit.

The common method of propagation is through seeds but seed germination in Zanthoxylum armatum is very low due to the presence of hard seed coat, which might be a great hurdle for large scale production of plantlets. So an attempt was made in this study to see the effect of different growth hormones, their concentrations and different rooting media on the rooting and sprouting of Z. armatum. The stem cuttings of Z. armatum were treated with two types of auxins namely Indole-3-Butyric Acid (IBA) and Naphthalene Acetic Acid (NAA) at different concentrations (2000 ppm, 3000 ppm and 5000 ppm), while the untreated cuttings were used as control. The cuttings were planted in three different rooting media: sand, neopeat and mix (containing a mixture of sand, soil and vermin-compost). The completely randomized design was used for the experiment. The total number of stem cuttings of Z. armatum used in the experiment was 1080 for 18 treatments in three replicates (20 cuttings per treatment x 18 treatments x 3 replicates). The experiment was set up in controlled greenhouse conditions at Dabur Nepal Private Limited Nursery, Banepa, Kavre District. The parameters evaluated were root length, shoot length and number of roots per cutting. The collected data were analyzed statistically using R-program with Agricola. Least significant difference (LSD) and Duncan multiple Range Test (DMRT), as mean separation technique was applied to identify the most efficient treatment in the rooting and shooting behavior of Z. armatum (Gomez and Gomez, 1984). Hormone concentration and growth media significantly affected the rooting and shooting ability of Z. armatum stem cuttings. IBA was found to be more effective than NAA. Neopeat medium was better than sand and mix media. The highest number of roots (6.5) and root length (11.6 cm) were recorded under IBA 5000 ppm in neopeat medium.

Citrus reticulata is an important cash crop for the farmers in the Sikkim and Darjeeling Himalayas, India. The lack of knowledge of its diversity has only resulted in the lack of uniformity in the fruit quality. It has become imperative to identify superior varieties that meet the demands of the market to improve the citrus industry. Hence, a total of 105 accessions of mandarin were collected randomly from different locations to assess the morphological diversity using cluster analysis and DIVA-GIS. The orchards were randomly visited in each district of the state of Sikkim and two hilly districts of the state of West Bengal (WB). A sample tree was selected from each orchard and the quantitative and qualitative characters of its leaves, flowers, and fruits were measured. A significant variation was observed in the quantitative characters with a positive correlation between fruit weight and length, fruit diameter and weight, total soluble solids (TSS) /acidity and fruit diameter. The first 6 components of Principal component analysis (PCA) exhibited 69.34% of the total variation. DIVA-GIS showed the highest diversity index for fruit weight, fruit diameter and TSS/acidity in East district, Sikkim. The highest coefficient variation for fruit diameter was observed in the East district and Darjeeling district, WB and TSS/acidity and fruit weight in East district. The dendrogram generated divided the accessions into two major clusters. The grid maps generated identified diverse accessions in the East district and Darjeeling district, which can be a source of superior germplasm