Pollinator Decline Not Yet Affecting Agriculture

The well documented worldwide decline in the population of bees and other pollinators  is not, at this stage, limiting global crop yields, according to a study conducted by researchers at the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO). The loss of insect pollinators is brought about by a combination of diseases, reduction in native vegetation and the use of insecticides, among other factors. Concerns over food availability amid decrease in the population of pollinator insects prompted the research, CSIRO entomologist Saul Cunningham says.

The scientists rated the crops on how much they depended on pollinators for maximum production. Depending on the crop, this dependence ranges from zero to 100 percent. For example, cereal crops like wheat don’t need to be pollinated but at the other end of the scale, unpollinated almond trees produce no nuts. The team found that between 1961 and 2006 the yields of most crops have consistently grown at about 1.5 per cent a year because of improvements in agriculture. Furthermore, they found out that there is no difference in relative yield between pollinator dependent and non-dependent crops.

However, Cunningham says that the study detected warning signs that demand for pollinators is still growing and some highly pollinator-dependant crops are suffering.

Read the news release http://www.csiro.au/news/Pollinator-Decline.html The paper published by Current Biology is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2008.08.066