Abstract
Recent declines in insect pollinators and the increasing dependence on insect pollination in agriculture present major challenges to ensuring future food production. As part of the effort to deal with this challenge, there is a pressing need to understand growers’ perceptions with regard to pollinator diversity and crop pollination management. At present, many growers are dependent on domesticated honey bees (Apis mellifera), however, targeted management strategies involving naturally occurring pollinator species might be necessary to ensure future crop pollination. In this study we used semi-structured interviews to explore growers’ knowledge about crop pollination and current practices to manage insect pollination in sweet cherry cultivation. Our findings suggest that growers have a clear understanding of the importance of pollination and its determining factors. However, with respect to their current pollination management, growers depend mainly on honey bees and only apply measures to enhance wild pollinator communities to a limited extent. Our study highlights the gap between the growers’ perception of the contribution of wild pollinators to crop pollination, and their efforts to manage these species. We conclude that this is due to a lack of communication of recent scientific findings on the contribution of pollinating insects to crop pollination through the information channels that are being used by growers today. It is therefore crucial that scientists, government and other stakeholders work together with growers and communicate scientific evidence as well as practical guidelines to growers.
Highlights
The pollination service of insects is indispensable for the food production of our affluent human population [1]
The domesticated honey bee (Apis mellifera) is the main pollinator species that is managed for pollination in agriculture today
Wild pollinator diversity has declined over the last few decades [5,6], which raises concerns about the maintenance of their pollination service
Summary
The pollination service of insects is indispensable for the food production of our affluent human population [1]. The global agricultural area has increased considerably, and the area of pollinator-dependent crops increased much more than that of non-pollinator-dependent crops. This trend is expected to continue in the coming decades [2]. Wild pollinator diversity has declined over the last few decades [5,6], which raises concerns about the maintenance of their pollination service. In the face of increasing agricultural demand and continued pollinator decline, it is essential to identify and implement targeted mitigation measures for relevant crop pollinator species in order to maintain crop productivity [7]
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