I
am interested in agriculture and regular reader of
FAO books/publication. I resently read DR Gupta's article on Honey Bee and
saw a Walt Disney's movie
honey bee
Bee Movie (2007).
http://www.fao.org/in-action/blending-tradition-and-science-to-protect-pollinators/en/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social+media&utm_campaign=fao+facebook
Blending tradition and science to
protect pollinators
The world’s pollinators are
disappearing. The loss of pollinators is one of the pressing problems that
agriculture faces today. FAO has responded to the loss of pollinators with the
Global Pollination Project.
Key
facts
Farmers in Ghana plant rows of cassava next
to their chili peppers, and plant banana trees in the middle of cocoa
plantations. In India, farmers hang bouquets of flowers in their apple trees.
And in Brazil, farmers have increased appreciation of a law requiring them to
leave a certain portion of their farms as natural habitat. Three seemingly
incongruent situations but they have a connection. All are solutions identified
by FAO and its partners for dealing with one of the pressing problems
agriculture faces today – the loss of pollinators, mainly bees but also other
insects and birds. Farmers have adopted these measures in an effort to bring
pollinators back to their fields, thanks to the support they receive from FAO’s
Global Pollination Project.
Bees and other pollinators make
enormous contributions to the world’s agriculture. In terms of food production,
staples such as wheat, maize, potatoes and rice can reproduce without animal
pollination. But, most fruits and vegetables, which are increasingly important
in global agriculture, cannot. While the plants themselves will survive, their
yields may drop by as much as 90 percent without pollination. This is
especially critical considering that 75 percent of all crops have some
dependence on pollinators. Plus, crops dependent on pollination are five times
more valuable than those that don’t need pollination. It all adds up to an
enormous contribution in terms of improved yields. The French National
Institute for Agricultural Research has valued pollinators’ contributions to
global agriculture at more than USD 200 billion a year. Although pollinators
are essential to the world’s ecosystems, the services those bees and other
pollinators provide freely to agriculture were once taken for granted.
It is only recently that pollination
has been recognized as an essential element of agronomy, a recognition mainly
due to a crisis – the world’s pollinators are disappearing. The reasons include
loss of habitat, intensive agriculture, indiscriminate use of pesticides and
climate change. Climate change is a double issue that not only affects
pollinator survival, it also alters crop growing seasons, which means that the
pollinators may not be available at the time that the crop is in flower and
needs the pollination.
Pollinators decline
Global statistics are sketchy, but
they show that pollinator populations in several parts of the world are steeply
declining. In Europe, where monitoring is more advanced than other parts of the
world, there is growing evidence of parallel declines in both wild pollinators
and in the plants relying on them. In recent decades, commercial farmers have
relied on domesticated honey bees as pollinators but for some crops, they just
are not as effective as their wild brethren.
Agronomists now recognize that the
most effective, resilient approach to managing pollination requires integrating
a diversity of wild species with managed pollinators such as honey bees. FAO’s
Global Pollination Project focuses on identifying the steps needed to bring
wild pollinators back to the fields – steps that vary from crop to crop and
farming system to farming system.
The project works with farming
communities, national partners and policy-makers in seven pilot countries,
raising awareness of the need to develop agricultural policy that supports
pollinators, meeting with farming communities to help them develop pollination
management plans, and introducing pollination into agricultural curricula.
Through farmer field schools
launched by the project, farmers can share their traditional pollination
solutions, blend them with the science-based practices, and observe the results
throughout the growing season. FAO is documenting the successful
pollinator-friendly practices, and compiling a set of tools and best management
practices that can be applied to pollinator conservation efforts worldwide. The solutions are rather obvious – modify intensive systems,
reduce pesticides and introduce diversity through cover crops, crop rotations
and hedgerows. The goal is to find ways to support pollinators without reducing
yields.
Adding science to tradition
Apple growers in India traditionally
hung flower bouquets in their apple trees to simplify the cross pollination
essential for apples to produce fruit. But FAO and its national partners
discovered that by careful placement, the bouquets also enticed small black
flies – not just bees – to pollinate their trees if the trees flowered when it
was too cold for bees. Until then, the farmers had considered the flies to be
pests and sprayed to control them.
Farmers in Ghana now plant cassava
rows around their chili pepper fields to increase pollination. Bees do not like
chili peppers, but FAO found that bees will come to the fields for the
nectar-rich cassava flowers and while there, will also pollinate the chilies.
Brazil’s regulation that farmers
must keep a portion of their farmland in its natural forested state in order to
slow tropical deforestation takes land out of production. But FAO and its
national partners have shown farmers that the forest provides habitat to
pollinators that, in turn, increase the production of crops, such as canola.
The increase in productivity has
been so impressive that private sector processors of canola seeds are now
working with the FAO project personnel to train their technicians and canola
farmers in pollination. The FAO Global Pollination Project is sharing its
findings across countries and regions, allowing more and more farmers and
countries access to the knowledge about importance of pollination – knowledge
that will eventually inform the policy to ensure that pollinators are protected
and can continue to do their job – supporting the world’s agricultural crops
I wish to add one more book to read . I got it from FAO (sare .org) Link is given below.
www.sare.org/content/download/.../Manage_Insects_on_Your_Farm.pdf
MANAGE INSECTS. On Your Farm. A Guide to Ecological Strategies. Miguel A. Altieri and Clara I. Nicholls with Marlene A. Fritz ...
There are many points and many questions to answers. I do not have any suggestion / solution . Let moves forwards and increase the agri production.
