[Pollinator] Fwd: [beemonitoring] handbook for evaluating pollinator-friendly practices

Wed Mar 7 08:07:19 PST 2012

____________________________________
 From: Barbara.Herren at fao.org
To: beemonitoring at yahoogroups.com
Sent:  3/7/2012 7:30:06 A.M. Pacific Standard Time
Subj: [beemonitoring] handbook  for evaluating pollinator-friendly practices

FAO-IIED  Press release 
5-step guide  to help farmers evaluate agriculture’s hidden heroes 
Smallholder  farmers will soon be better able to weigh up the cost and 
benefits of adopting  new practices that support some of the most overlooked 
contributors to global  food security — the insects and other animals that 
pollinate their crops and  boost yields.  
“Three quarters  of all food crops need insect pollinators such as bees to 
get good yields, and  35% of all food production globally comes from crops 
dependent on pollinators  — but there are worrying reports of declines in 
pollinators from several  regions of the world,” says Barbara Gemmill-Herren of 
the Food and Agriculture  Organization of the United Nations (FAO).  
Now, Maryanne  Grieg-Gran of the International Institute for Environment 
and Development and  Gemmill-Herren have co-authored a handbook that 
smallholder farmers and  organizations that work with them can use to identify such 
pollinator-friendly  practices and evaluate their impacts on livelihoods, 
incomes and health.   
“Sharing  information with farmers about pollinator-friendly practices is a 
good first  step,” says Grieg-Gran. “But farmers will adopt 
pollinator-friendly practices  only if they can see that these practices will bring 
benefits to them – and  while cash always helps, other less tangible benefits may 
also be  important.” 
There are  striking examples of farmers managing for pollination services - 
in Ghana, a  mango farmer realized some of the common weeds growing under 
his trees  attracted pollinators into the orchard. To conserve those 
pollinator species,  the farmer chose to hand-weed rather than use herbicide even 
though weeding  was four times more expensive. In South ern India, farmers who 
grow coffee and  cardamom have chosen to plant selections of shade trees 
that flower at  different times from the crops to ensure continuous forage for 
the  pollinators.  But farmers are often not aware of how best to manage 
their  farms to make the most of this natural service. 
The handbook,  which will be published on 8 March by FAO, draws on work 
with farmers in  Ghana, India, Kenya and Nepal. 
To improve  pollination of their horticultural crops, farmers in the 
Mankessim area of  Ghana chose to try out reducing pesticide use, protect 
riverside vegetation  and sacred groves that provide habitat for poll inators and 
allow flowering  plants to grow along field borders.  
In Uttarakhand  State, in India, farmers who plant grasses to prevent soil 
erosion at the  edges of their fields could instead use plants that also 
attract pollinators.   
The handbook  provides a five-step approach, centred in the farmer field 
school tradition,  for smallholders to assess current production systems, 
identifying and testing  new practices, and evaluating their impacts. It will 
enable farmers to weigh  up the costs and benefits of adopting different a
pproaches to  farming. 
“Wild  pollinators are some of the most important contributors to global 
food  security, but farmers often overlook them,” says Maryanne Grieg-Gran of 
IIED.  “Farmers need to be directly involved in testing practices that 
encourage  pollinators to visit their crops so that they can assess the benefits 
and  costs for themselves.” 
Barbara  Gemmill-Herren of FAO adds: “As agriculture intensifies with 
large-scale  monocultures and greater use of agricultural chemicals, pollinators 
are  increasingly threatened. There is a critical need to develop 
agricultural  practices that sustain and increase yields, based on the ecosystem 
services  such as pollination provided by wild species. 221; 
The publication  has been produced under the Global Pollination Project, a 
Global Environment  Facility-supported project, implemented by United 
Nations Environment  Programme and executed by the Food and Agriculture 
Organization, with seven  national partners. The production of the handbook was 
facilitated by funding  from the International Fund for Agricultural Development. 
To  download the book as a PDF  visit 
_http://www.internationalpollinatorsinitiative.org/documents.do_ 
(http://www.internationalpollinatorsinitiative.org/documents.do)  
Contacts  for interviews  
Maryanne  Grieg-Gran 
Principal  researcher 
International  Institute for Environment and Development 
_Maryanne at iied.org_ (mailto:Maryanne at iied.org)  / +44  (0)2034637399 
Barbara  Gemmill-Herren, 
Focal Point, International Pollinator  Initiative 
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United  Nations 
_Barbara.Herren at fao.org_ (mailto:Barbara.Herren at fao.org)  / +39  0657056838 

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