Как мы можем защитить опылителей и закрепить их роль в экологической и сельскохозяйственной практиках?
Pollination is responsible for providing us with a wide variety of food, mainly horticultural crops. In fact, pollinators such as bees, beetles, birds and bats affect 35 percent of the world's crop production, increasing outputs of 87 of the leading food crops worldwide (FAO), as well as many plant-derived medicines. It is critical for food production and human livelihoods, and directly links wild ecosystems with agricultural production systems. Without this service, many interconnected species and processes functioning within an ecosystem could collapse.
Human activity has put a large pressure on pollinators by both increasing their demand while at the same time removing their habitat. Horticulture has rapidly expanded over the last decades, while the landscape has become more uniform due to intensive agriculture. Lack of pollination has increased awareness of the value and management requirements of this service. Effective pollination requires resources, such as refuges of pristine natural vegetation. Where these are reduced or lost, pollinators are becoming scarce and adaptive management practices will be required to sustain food production.
What are the main issues concerning pollinator services and food security?
1) They increase food quantity
Bees and other pollinating insects are currently improving the food production of two billion small farmers worldwide, helping to ensure food security for the world's population. Research shows that if pollination is managed well on small diverse farms, with all other factors being equal, crop yields can increase by a significant median of 24 percent
2) They increase food quality
Foods richest in micro nutrients such as fruits, vegetables and seeds depend on pollination. If a plant has been well pollinated, meaning that it received quite a large amount of pollen, a larger and more uniform fruit will develop. Round apples for instance, would imply sufficient pollination, whereas misshaped apples would imply insufficient or imbalanced pollination. Generally, plants put more of their resources into pollinated fruits, increasing quality and taste.
3) Bees and pollinators need favourable environments to be productive
Pollinators need good foraging resources, places that are rich in flowers pollen and nectar. They need a place to nest and to eat, and a natural, non-toxic environment. One hundred years ago, small, diverse and pesticide-free farming systems proved very favorable for pollinators. Such environments can still be found today in developing countries such as Kenya.
4) Their biggest threats
The absence of an appropriate habitat for bees and other pollinators could lead to a continuous decline in pollination. Mono-cropping, pesticides, diseases and higher temperatures associated with climate change all pose problems for populations and, by extension, the quality of food we grow. Declining pollination can also pose an immediate threat on nutrition.
5) Protection measures for farmers and governments
For farmers:
Recommended practices include leaving some areas under natural habitat, creating hedgerows, reducing or changing the usage of pesticides, leaving nesting sites and planting attractive crops such as cassava around the field. The latter is often applied by farmers in Ghana and has yielded more than satisfactory results.
On a policy level:
Based on a report by the intergovernmental platform of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Service (IPBES), governments should support a more diverse agriculture and depend less on toxic chemicals in order to facilitate an increase in pollination, leading to improved food quality and a surge in food quantity.
Given the importance of pollination services for both environmental and agricultural benefits it is vital that active steps are taken to help protect pollinators.
Your experience will help us take stock of challenges faced by pollinators and, more importantly, of ways to protect their important role in providing us with food. A summary brief of the comments and inputs you share will be widely circulated in order to raise awareness and prompt further exchanges.
- What activities are you aware of that are successfully promoting pollinator insects in your area? Share examples of best practice.
- What more needs to be done to encourage pollinator friendly practices?
- What training, support or information do you need to take up pollinator friendly practices?
Thank you for your comments and look forward to learning more.
James Edge, Communications specialist
and
FAO's TECA Beekeeping Exchange Group
Темы
- Прочитано 36 комментарии
Г-н Mithare Prasad
Pollinators play a vital role in agriculture crop production, they help in pollination in crops without which fruit production is impossible especially in cross pollinated crops. Honey bees, wasp bees, gaint bees, butterflies which are major pollinators among insect kingdom. Protection of pollinators has became a important aspects in modern agriculture due to use of heavy chemical fertilizers, pesticides,herbicides,growth harmones, which kill all the pests, on other side it also kill beneficial insects like pollinators so to protect these pollinators there are some precaution to be followed.
Ex.:
1) Reduce use of highly toxic/carcenogenic pesticides, herbicides on agricultural crops;
2) Use organic based plant protection which is eco friendly to environment as well as insect diversity;
3) practice a crop production which produce a yellow flower which attract bees like sunflower, safflower etc.;
4) increase honey bee hives about 10 hives/ ha land so it increase the bee population;
5) Avoide burning of crop residues in field, because residue burning will produce dark smoke which contains toxic gases it will affect the honey bee activity and destroy bee hives;
6) increase the jaggery production unit so it will attract pollinators and increase the population;
7) more important practices is plant forest tree species on border side of the field so that honey bees are likely to construct their hives in higher altitude on tree branches;
8) planting the ornimental plant species which is most attractive to pollinators etc...
Thanks.
Regards,
Mithare Prasad
I am currently experimenting the use of non-wood materials for making beehives. If it succeeds I will shift from overly depending on wood. I believe this can help in a small way to reduce tree cutting for making beehives.
I had the opportunity to be part of some of the Rapid Rural Appraisals on the Jasmine (Jasminum sambac, grandiflorum,auriculatum) farmer’s fields of the states of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, South India. Farmer’s had an opinion that the common pollinators like dwarf bees and butterflies are found only in sizable counts nowadays due to dry spells and extreme heats conditions in their areas. They pointed out that the harsh scents of pesticides, could also be a reason behind this change. They have adopted intercropping with seasame, peanuts, and long beans was considered as the viable autonomous adaptation options by the farmers. There is training need for Sensitizing the farmers for maintaining Pollinator Friendly Farm lands through Farmers training Institutes or Krishi Vignan Kendras inorder to sustain the ecological balance and hence attracting more pollinators.
It is very essential to take up more research activities and prioritize monitoring and evaluation of the impacts of climate change on pollinator distributions and their present status of pollinators in a scientific way and maintain Agriculture biological diversity especially a country like India which is a signatory for the Convention to Biological Diversity and in the context of thriving to achieve the 2020 Aichi Biodiversity Targets.
Populations of pollinating insects including honeybees is threatened by monocropping and use of intensive agricultural practices including rampant application of pesticides. A good example is the almond farms in California that require increasing import of pollinator honey bees from outside for proper pollination of almond flowers. What can be done to improve on on-farm biodiversity and to enhance the multiplication pollinator insects including honeybees? Allowing broad-leaf weeds and leguminous plants to grow in field boundaries; growing wild flowers in areas adjacent to crop fields; adoption of diversified cropping -- rotation of crops, intercropping, incorporation of trees in farms like in agroforestry systems; leaving live natural vegetation strips or hedge rows of shrubs and trees along the contour in large farms will all help in increasing diversity in farms and support the growth and development of pollinators and natural enemies of crop pests. Ecological intensification through conservation agriculture is the way forward to intensify food production and to enhance farm biodiversity.
English translation below
L'agriculture, l'urbanisation et les activités industrielles, lorsqu'elles ne respectent pas certains principes écologiques, sont parmi les plus importants perturbateurs de la vie des pollinisateurs. L'important est donc de promouvoir une agriculture écologique (agroécologie) qui permet de produire sans trop désorganiser le fonctionnement des écosystèmes dont les pollinisateurs sont un élément indissociable. En particulier, les activités agricoles doivent être menées de manière à moins réduire la biodiversité. Les associations de cultures et l'agroforesterie sont par exemple des techniques agroécologiques favorables à la protection des pollinisateurs. Surtout, une attention particultière doit être accordée aux plantes qui donnent beaucoup de fleurs, surtout les plantes de la familles des asteracées et les légumineuses. J'ai particulièrement remarqué une corrélation entre l'activité des pollinisateurs et l'existence de Tridax procumbens dans un milieu donné. Tridax procumbens est une herbe (encore sauvage) qui accueille beaucoup d'abeilles, même s'il ne couvre pas une grande superficie. Il serait donc bon de veiller à entretenir cette herbe partout où elle pousse bien. Il faut lui créer des conditions pour son développement massif, notamment par l'arrosage, l'amendement du sol. L'usage des pesticides chimiques de synthèse, la destruction du couvert végétal et l'émission abondance de gaz toxiques ou à effet de serre sont des actes destructeurs des pollinisateurs.D'où, l'intérêt de privilégier les pesticides biologiques, tels que l'extrait aqueux des feuilles de Hyptis suaveolens, l'huile des graines de neem, etc; pour lutter contre les maladies et ravageurs des cultures.
Agriculture, urbanization and industrial activities, when they do not respect certain ecological principles, are among the worst disrupters of the pollinators' life. The important thing is to promote an ecological agriculture (agro-ecology) which allows for production without jeopardizing the functioning of eco-systems of which pollinators are an intrinsic element. In particular, agricultural activities must be pursued so as to have least effect on biodiversity. The crop raising and agro-forestry associations are examples of agro-ecological techniques favorable to the protection of pollinators. Above all, particular attention must be paid to plants that provide many flowers, in particular to the plants of the asteraceae [sunflowers] and pulses. I have noticed particularly a relationship between the activity of pollinators and the presence of Tridax procumbens in a given area. Tridax procumbens is a plant (still wild) which attracts many bees, even if it does not occupy a large surface. It would, therefore, be worth ensuring the presence of this plant wherever it can grow well. Conditions for its widespread development should be created, principally by irrigation and soil improvement. The use of synthetic chemical pesticides, the destruction of vegetal cover and the emission of toxic or greenhouse gases are acts destructive of pollinators. Hence the interest in promoting the use of biological pesticides, such as the aqueous extract of the leaves of Hyptis suaveolens, the oil of neem seed [azadirachta indica], etc.; to fight against diseases and pests in crops.
Д-р. Demetrio Miguel Castillo Castillo Espinosa
English translation below
Aunque por su poca importanica relativa, el papel de los polinizadores son una columna en la producccion de aliemntos para el mundo. Un ejemplo de ello es la produccion de miel y la empresa familiar de la miel que da comida a miles de familias en el mundo. En el nuestro debido a la creacion de invernaderos estas han tenido que migrar de zona debido a que no en cuentran flores para polinizar y han creado un problema fundamental de produccion familiar y por lo tanto han hecho que cientos de familias que vivian de esas producciones hayan tenido inlcuso que emigrar a otras zonas por la ausencia de abejas y de miel en amplias zonas que antes se dedicaban a ese producto y vivian por su existencia algo que ha cambiado radicalmente.
Despite its relative unimportance, the role of pollinators is one of the pillars of global food production. An example of this is the production of honey and family beekeeping businesses that support thousands of people. Due to the development of greenhouses, bees have had to migrate to other areas because there are no flowers to pollinate. In this way, a very serious threat to family farming has been created, forcing hundreds of families even to migrate due to the absence of bees and honey in large areas that were once productive and allowed for a livelihood. Something which has now changed radically.
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