Lack of honey bees, crop yields in many countries are threatened

In the study published in the American journal PLOS ONE on January 8, scientists from the University of Reading, South England warned that many European countries will lack the number of honey bees needed to pollinate. The crop is transformed by the European Union (EU) into a priority policy for bioenergy use.

When comparing the number of beehives with bee pollination demand in 41 European countries during 2005-2010, scientists found that the number of honey bees cannot meet the demand for pollination in 22 countries. family.

Among the countries studied, the situation in Turkey, Greece and Balkan countries is the most positive because these countries have a good tradition of bee keeping, which can meet up to 90% of the pollination needs for flowers. color.

Meanwhile, in the Baltic countries, honey bees only meet 25% of pollination needs. In France and Germany, this rate is between 25-50%.

Photo: nationalgeographic

According to the study results, the need to use honey bees to pollinate plants increased by 38% in areas where oilseed crops such as canola, sunflower and soybean were grown. Meanwhile, the population of honey bees increased only 7% in the period 2005 - 2010, from 22.5 million flocks to 24.1 million.

The area of ​​planting oilseed crops was expanded in 2003 when the EU required the use of bio-raw materials to account for 5.75% of the total consumption of materials of transport vehicles in 2010 and this area. will continue to increase as the EU sets a target of increasing the use of biofuels to 10% by 2020.

This situation makes farmers more dependent on wild pollinators than domesticated bees during the pollination period. This dependency is worrisome because wild insects are always fluctuating in quantity.

Moreover, they are vulnerable due to monoculture intensive farming - less planting of flowering plants to provide food and nesting places for these insects.

Meanwhile, the honey bee Apis mellifera used to pollinate in Europe is affected by harmful insects and pesticide use.

According to 2009 estimates, the economic value of crop pollinators generated 153 billion euros in the total value of crops in the world.