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Wild bees key to billion dollar worth of fruit and vegetable crops in North America - Bee-ing important - Economic Times
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Wild bees are worth some $1.5 billion to key fruit and vegetable crops in North America, according to new research that warns declines in these pollinators threaten the productivity of vital agriculture, reports AFP.
The study, which had funding from the United States Department of Agriculture, comes as evidence of steep drops in insect populations worldwide prompts fears of dire consequences for crop pollination and natural food chains. Researchers from several US and Canadian universities looked at seven major fruit, vegetable and nut crops that are dependent on pollination - by wild bees and domesticated honeybees, which are often transported around farms as hired crop pollinators.
The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, found that five out of the seven crops showed evidence that a scarcity of bees was reducing crop production. "Our findings show that pollinator declines could translate directly into decreased yields or production for most of the crops studied, and that wild species contribute substantially to pollination of most study crops in major crop-producing regions," the authors said.
Honeybees have traditionally been seen as the most economically valuable pollinators in the US. But Winfree said the study found native wild bees play a much greater role than has been previously assumed, "even in areas of intensive crop production".
Researchers collected data from 131 farms in the US and parts of Canada on the prevalence of different types of bees, the amount of pollen distributed per flower visit, and crop yield. They estimated that the nationwide annual production value of wild pollinators to the crops studied was over $1.5 billion, compared with $6.4 billion for honeybees -- a figure dominated by their $4.2 billion value to almond production. Researchers found that in six crops -- pumpkin, apple, sweet cherry, tart cherry, blueberry and watermelon -- wild bee species deposited on average more pollen per flower visit than honeybees.
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