BeeCause

The relationship between the world’s growing population and its food supply is a matter of prime importance. The food industry depends heavily on agriculture. Pollination is the highest agricultural contributor to yields worldwide, contributing far beyond any other agricultural management practice. Most of the world’s seed plants need to be pollinated. For crop pollination to be effective, timing is everything! Not only does the crop have to be in bloom but it must be accessible to its pollinators.

Researchers differentiate crops into categories using a scale of pollinator dependence. This ranges from having no dependency, to pollinators being essential. One of the most common pollinator insects are the bees and they are essential to the production of many of the micro-nutrient rich fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and oils we eat. In fact, close to 75 percent of the world’s crops producing fruits and seeds for human consumption depend, at least in part, on pollinators for sustained production, yield and quality. But alarmingly, in a number of regions, pollination services are showing declining trends. In the past, this service was provided by nature at no apparent cost. As farm fields have become larger, agricultural practices have also changed, focussing on a narrower list of crops and increasing the use of pesticides. Mounting evidence points to these factors as causes to the potentially serious decline in populations of pollinators. (Why Bees Matter, 2018) Crops such as mangoes in tropical regions, or almonds or cherries in temperate regions, have periods of mass blooming over relatively short time spans, requiring a tremendous peak in pollinators. Alternate resources are sometimes needed to fully support pollination services during crop flowering. This could entail shipping pollinators
(like bees) into the crop area. Beekeepers play a huge role in enabling pollination by having their bees in the farms that need them. The role of bees and beekeepers is critical to agriculture not only in the US, but also globally. With improved pollination management, crop yields could be further increased by about 25 percent and we could contribute to several of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.