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Involving farmers to save pollinators in Sikkim-Darjeeling Himalaya, India

17.06.2020

On 5 June 2020, World Environment Day, the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology (ATREE) used modern technology to engage Eastern Himalayan farmers in collecting data on pollinators and raising awareness of their importance. 

ATREE led an online, community-based survey called “Know Your Pollinators” in the Sikkim-Darjeeling Himalaya. The campaign involved farmers in documenting the diversity of insect pollinators found in their agricultural fields and farms. 

The “Know Your Pollinators” campaign encourages farmers’ participation in observing and recording information about pollinators, thereby raising these farmers’ awareness about the importance role pollinators play in their livelihoods. 

Farmers documented eight groups of insect pollinators - including ants, bees, butterflies and others – pollinating more than 40 different food crops, from fruits to legumes to grains. According to the survey, honeybees and bumblebees were the key pollinators of the farmers’ food crops. 

The surveyed area, the Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya, is part of the Eastern Himalaya Biodiversity Hotspot: an area of rich biodiversity and diverse ecosystems. The many species of insects, birds, bats and other small animals are integral to the farmers’ crop production and, thus, the food security of the local community.

However, the pollinators in the Darjeeling-Sikkim region are being threatened. Some of the threats include mono-cropping of cash crops, loss and fragmentation of habitats, use of chemical pesticides in agriculture, and climate change. In order to ensure food and income security, it is imperative to develop production systems that conserve pollinators. This is especially true today in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has had negative effects on the farming community’s food security and their income from agriculture. 

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Photo by Mingma Tamang (ATREE Eastern Himalaya Regional Office, 2020. “Community based monitoring of food crop pollinators in Sikkim-Darjeeling Himalaya, India”.)