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Farmers in Ghana plant rows of cassava next to chili pepper plantations and banana trees in the middle of cocoa plantations. In India, farmers hang bouquets of flowers from apple trees. And in Brazil, farmers are taking more seriously a law that requires them to leave a certain part of their farms as natural habitat. These three situations may seem at odds, but they are connected. All are solutions that FAO and its partners have identified to address one of the most pressing issues facing agriculture today – the disappearance of pollinators (primarily bees, but also other insects and birds). With support from FAO’s Global Pollination Programme, farmers are taking these steps in an effort to bring pollinators back to their fields.
Bees and other pollinators make a huge contribution to world agriculture. When it comes to food production, staples like wheat, corn, potatoes, and rice can thrive without animal pollination. But most fruits and vegetables, which are increasingly important in global agriculture, cannot. While the plant itself can survive, its yield can drop by 90% without pollination. This is especially important considering that 75% of crops rely on pollinators. In addition, crops that rely on pollination are five times more valuable than crops that don’t require pollination. All of this adds up to a huge contribution in terms of increased yields. The French National Institute for Agricultural Research estimates that pollinators contribute more than $200 billion per year to global agriculture. While pollinators are vital to the world’s ecosystems, the services these bees and other pollinators provide to agriculture for free were once taken for granted.
Until recently, pollination was not recognized as an essential element of agronomy, largely due to a crisis – the world’s pollinators were disappearing. The causes include habitat loss, intensive agriculture, the misuse of pesticides and climate change. Climate change is a double problem, not only affecting the survival of pollinators, but also changing the growing season for crops, which means that pollinators may not be there when crops are in bloom and need pollination.
Decline in pollinators
Global statistics are not comprehensive, but these indicate that pollinator populations are declining dramatically in several regions around the world. Monitoring in Europe is more advanced than in other parts of the world, and there is growing evidence that both wild pollinators and the plants that rely on them are declining. Commercial farmers have relied on domesticated honey bees as pollinators in recent decades, but for some crops they are not as effective as wild bees.
Agronomists now recognize that the most effective and resilient way to manage pollination is to combine a variety of wild species with managed pollinators such as bees. FAO’s Global Pollination Project focuses on identifying the steps needed to bring wild pollinators back to fields – and these steps vary depending on the crop and farming system.
The project works with farming communities, national partners and policymakers in seven pilot countries to raise awareness of the need for agricultural policies that support pollinators, meet with farming communities to help them develop pollination management plans, and introduce pollination into agricultural curricula.
Through the farmer field schools initiated by the project, farmers can share their traditional pollination solutions, combine them with scientific practices and observe the results throughout the growing season. FAO is documenting successful pollinator-friendly practices and compiling a set of tools and best management practices that can be applied to pollinator conservation efforts around the world. The solutions are fairly obvious – modify intensive systems, reduce pesticides and introduce diversity through cover crops, crop rotations and hedges. The goal is to find ways to support pollinators without reducing yields.
Integrating science into tradition
Apple growers in India have traditionally hung bouquets of flowers on their trees to ease the cross-pollination process necessary for the apples to bear fruit. But FAO and its national partners have found that if the bouquets are carefully placed, they can also attract tiny black flies (not just bees) to pollinate the trees if the trees bloom when it’s too cold for bees to survive. Until now, farmers have considered black flies to be pests and sprayed pesticides to control them.
Farmers in Ghana are now planting cassava around their pepper fields to increase pollination. Bees don’t like peppers, but FAO has found that bees will fly to the fields to collect the nectar-rich cassava flowers, which also pollinate the peppers.
Brazil requires farmers to retain natural forest on a portion of their farmland to slow tropical deforestation, which renders land unproductive. But FAO and its national partners have shown farmers that forests provide habitat for pollinators, increasing yields of crops such as canola.
The productivity gains have been so impressive that private sector canola processors are now working with FAO project staff to train their technicians and canola farmers in pollination. The FAO Global Pollination Project is sharing its findings across countries and regions to educate more farmers and countries about the importance of pollination – knowledge that will ultimately inform policies to ensure pollinators are protected and can continue to play their part in supporting the world’s crops.
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