Why We Need Bees!
Pollination Services, Agrobiodiversity and Livelihoods
Bees – role and loss
Ensuring sustained pollination services
Bees play a major role in pollinating both crops and wild plants.
Populations are going down in many parts of the world, with serious
consequences for agricultural productivity and food security
Awareness raising
Integrating pollinator
concerns into policies
Integration of
pollination to
agriculture
Why?
Promoting honeybees for
managed pollination
The major reasons for the loss of bees in the Himalayas are
• Excessive and indiscriminate use of pesticides by farmers
• Loss of the plants that bees usually feed on as a result of
changes in land-use and agricultural practices.
• Increased honey hunting and extraction of too many combs
What happens?
Loss of bees leads to poor quality and lower production of fruit,
seeds, and other crops. It also effects ecosystem services, for
example through loss of biodiversity, lowering of soil fertility, and
impacts on cultural activities like honey hunting.
How pollinators contribute to agricultural productivity
and rural livelihoods
People and
managed bees
Increased
agricultural productivity
Strong pollination
services to agriculture
Strategies to maintain
diversity and abundance
of pollinators for better
pollination services to
agriculture
•Investing in creating an
enabling environment for
wider use of indigenous
insect pollinators
•Judicious use of pesticides
to avoid mass killing of
insect pollinators
Institutional strengthening and
human resource development
Enhanced yield and
quality of agricultural
produce
Enhanced
populations of
pollinators
Improved pollination
of natural flora
•Habitat conservation for
nesting and food sources
for pollinators in all seasons
Improved
food security and
income of
farmers
Diverse and healthy habitats
for insect pollinators
Some facts about pollinators
• Over 80% of all flowering plants and 75% of crops depend
on living (biotic) pollinators
• Bees pollinate close to three-quarters of the world’s cultivated crops
• The annual contribution of pollinators to world agriculture is estimated
at 212 billion USD
Pollination
Insects, birds,
mammals, wind,
water, others
Soil conservation
and improved soil
fertility
Conservation of
the environment and
biodiversity
Increased
income, food security
Crop pollination in the Himalayan region
Improved
livelihoods and
climate change
adaptation
Using honeybees for apple pollination in
Himachal Pradesh, India
Hand pollination of apples in Maoxian County, China
ICIMOD GPO Box 3226, Kathmandu, Nepal Tel +977-1-5003222 Email [email protected] Web www.icimod.org