wild bees are unpaid farmhands worth billions
Last Updated : GMT 09:40:38
Themuslimchronicle, themuslimchronicle
Themuslimchronicle, themuslimchronicle
Last Updated : GMT 09:40:38
Themuslimchronicle, themuslimchronicle

Worth more than $3250 per hectare

Wild bees are unpaid farmhands worth billions

Themuslimchronicle, themuslimchronicle

Themuslimchronicle, themuslimchronicleWild bees are unpaid farmhands worth billions

Wild bees provide crop pollination services worth more than $3250 per hectare per year
Paris - Arab Today

Wild bees provide crop pollination services worth more than $3,250 (2,880 euros) per hectare per year, a study reported Tuesday.

Their value to the food system is "in the billions, globally," its authors wrote in the journal Nature Communications.

Over three years, researchers followed the activities of nearly 74,000 bees from more than 780 species.

The team looked at 90 projects to monitor bee pollination at 1,394 crop fields around the world.

They found that on average, wild bees contribute $3,251 per hectare ($1,315 per acre) to crop production, ahead of managed honey bee colonies, which were worth $2,913 per hectare.

The probe adds to attempts to place a dollar figure on "ecosystem services" -- the natural resources that feed us -- to discourage environmental plundering.

Amazingly, two percent of wild bee species, the most common types, fertilise about 80 percent of bee-pollinated crops worldwide, the team found.

The rest, while crucial for the ecosystem, are less so for agriculture -- so conservationists may undermine their own argument by promoting a purely economic argument for the protection of bee biodiversity, the authors said.

"Rare and threatened species may play a less significant role economically than common species, but this does not mean their protection is less important," said David Kleijn, a professor at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, who led the study.

A healthy diversity of bee species is essential, given major fluctuations in populations, he added.

Honey bees in many parts of the world are suffering a catastrophic decline, variously blamed on pesticides, mites, viruses or fungus.

Last month, US watchdogs reported that US beekeepers lost 42 percent of their colonies from the previous year, a level deemed too high to be sustainable.

"This study shows us that wild bees provide enormous economic benefits, but reaffirms that the justification for protecting species cannot always be economic," said co-author Taylor Ricketts of the University of Vermont.

"We still have to agree that protecting biodiversity is the right thing to do."

- Busy bees -

According to the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), about 80 per cent of flowering plant species are pollinated by insects, as well as by birds and bats.

At least one third of the world's agricultural crops depend on these unpaid workers, the UN agency says on its website.

Crops which require pollination include coffee, cocoa and many fruit and vegetable types.

The economic value of pollination was estimated in a 2005 study at 153 billion euros, accounting for 9.5 percent of farm production for human food.

Commentators not involved in the study said it may play an invaluable part of the campaign to save bees.

"Crucially, the commonest wild bees are the most important, which gives us the 'win-win' situation where relatively cheap and easy conservation measures can support these and give maximum benefit for the crops," said Pat Willmer, a professor of biology at Scotland's University of St Andrews.

"For example, planting wild flowers with wider grassy margins around crops, as well as less intensive or more organic farming, all enhance abundance of the key crop-visiting bees," he told Britain's Science Media Centre (SMC).
Source: AFP

themuslimchronicle
themuslimchronicle

Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

wild bees are unpaid farmhands worth billions wild bees are unpaid farmhands worth billions

 



Themuslimchronicle, themuslimchronicle
Themuslimchronicle, themuslimchronicle
Themuslimchronicle, themuslimchronicle

GMT 11:50 2017 Thursday ,20 April

Aqualuxe launches & appoints Belle PR

GMT 16:27 2017 Friday ,07 April

Minister receives corporate executives

GMT 02:55 2017 Thursday ,09 March

Le Pen could win in France, warns Hollande

GMT 11:41 2017 Sunday ,20 August

23 dead as train derails in India

GMT 20:33 2011 Tuesday ,13 September

Algerian director among Tangier film festival jury

GMT 12:31 2017 Friday ,04 August

Singer Karmen Soliman prepares for a new song

GMT 07:43 2015 Saturday ,20 June

Conflict-scarred Mali on cusp of peace deal

GMT 09:20 2017 Monday ,13 November

Colossal SoftBank fund could shake up tech world

GMT 09:39 2017 Monday ,30 October

London house-buyers get lift from Brexit

GMT 09:37 2017 Saturday ,02 December

Kriechmayr wins World Cup super-G

GMT 08:27 2017 Tuesday ,26 September

'We are Catalans': Scots voice referendum solidarity

GMT 16:21 2013 Friday ,17 May

There's something about Charr

GMT 09:37 2017 Tuesday ,28 November

Time Inc. sale highlights economic, political turmoil
Themuslimchronicle, themuslimchronicle
Themuslimchronicle, themuslimchronicle
 
 Themuslimchronicle Facebook,themuslimchronicle facebook  Themuslimchronicle Twitter,themuslimchronicle twitter Themuslimchronicle Rss,themuslimchronicle rss  Themuslimchronicle Youtube,themuslimchronicle youtube  Themuslimchronicle Youtube,themuslimchronicle youtube

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2023 ©

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2023 ©

muslimchronicle muslimchronicle muslimchronicle muslimchronicle
themuslimchronicle themuslimchronicle themuslimchronicle
themuslimchronicle
بناية النخيل - رأس النبع _ خلف السفارة الفرنسية _بيروت - لبنان
themuslimchronicle, themuslimchronicle, themuslimchronicle