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Birds and bees on the farm

As pollinators, bees, birds, and bats are key contributors to higher agricultural productivity. A third of the human diet comes from plants pollinated by insects, notably bees. In recent years, these keystone species have suffered major declines in many countries owing to a variety of factors such as disease, habitat loss and degradation, the introduction of exotic species, and relentless pesticide use. Protection of pollinators is vital to food security, and the United Nations Environment Programme has come up with a good plan to help individual countries do so. The $26.45 million project, to be funded by the Global Environment Facility and other multilateral agencies, promises to help India, Kenya, Brazil, Ghana, Nepal, Pakistan, and South Africa adopt an ecosystem approach to conserve pollinator species. The plan, to run over a five-year period, holds tremendous potential for India in raising farm productivity and creating more rural jobs in sectors such as honey and wax production.

The largely unexploited economic potential of bees was underscored by the National Commission on Agriculture (1976), but not much progress has been made since. Far from achieving the desirable level of 150 million bee colonies for the area that could be brought under crop, the country witnessed a precipitous fall in their population over the last decade because of a virus outbreak. Pollinator populations have recovered in some measure, but National Bee Board estimates show that only 1.4 million colonies survive. What is clear is that there is a long way to go before healthy pollinator populations can be achieved. The support available under the UNEP plan could help in significant measure if the funds are used intelligently. Conserving both disease-resistant wild species and managed varieties on farms must be the goal. This requires a shift away from intensive agriculture and monoculture, which kills off wild populations dependent on weeds and native flowering plants. The need to protect wild bees is evident from the U.S. experience of massive collapse of cultivated honeybee colonies, for reasons that are as yet unclear. Eliminating pesticide toxicity in food chains can help pollinator birds, bats, and even common farm birds that are disappearing. Sustainable agriculture requires a thriving population of pollinators, and the UNEP initiative is timely. It can encourage governments, farmers, non-governmental organisations, and scientists to identify the best management practices, and produce the much-needed increase in farm output.

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