Abstract
Urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) in West African countries is developing rapidly in response to population growth and changing consumer preferences. Furthermore, UPA offers opportunities to secure income and social integration for the urban poor. However, little is known about household (HH) income security effects of the ongoing shift in UPA land use from crops that do not rely on insect pollinators for fruit development (e.g., sorghum and millet) to pollinator-dependent crops. In our study we developed a Household Vulnerability Index (HVI) for 224 HHs along a rural–urban gradient of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. The HVI indicates to which degree total HH revenue could be affected by a decline in insect pollinators. HH specific relative reduction of agricultural revenue ranged from 0 to −0.83, a reduction in HHs’ revenue of up to 83%, depending on the crops’ level of pollinator dependency. Half of the studied HHs (n = 108) showed an HVI of 0 and remained unaffected by a decline in pollinators. Nevertheless, mean HVI was highest for urban HHs; making these HHs most vulnerable for loss of pollination services. As in urban areas changes in insect-mediated pollination services are expected, the development of resilient UPA systems must consider “pollinator-friendly” landscape management.
Highlights
The decline of wild and domesticated pollinators may affect the world’s poor who strongly rely on biodiversity and ecosystem services for food and income security [1,2]
With the shift in agricultural land use from crops that do not rely on insect pollinators for fruit and seed development such as sorghum (Sorghum bicolor Moench), millet (Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R.Br.) and maize (Zea mays L.) to crops in which pollinating insects contribute significantly to fruit quantity and quality, it may well be that West African (WA) farmers’ livelihoods and food security will be increasingly affected by future losses in biodiversity [6]
Low pollinator dependency (PD) indicates a potentially reduced production by up to 10% if pollinators are absent (0 < PD ≤ 10), moderate PD indicates a reduction of 10% to 40% in the absence of pollinators (10 < PD ≤ 40) and a high PD was assigned to crop species that strongly depends on insect pollinators, i.e., a reduction of between 40% and 90% will occur following total pollinator loss (40 < PD ≤ 90)
Summary
The decline of wild and domesticated pollinators may affect the world’s poor who strongly rely on biodiversity and ecosystem services for food and income security [1,2]. With the shift in agricultural land use from crops that do not rely on insect pollinators for fruit and seed development such as sorghum (Sorghum bicolor Moench), millet (Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R.Br.) and maize (Zea mays L.) to crops in which pollinating insects contribute significantly to fruit quantity and quality, it may well be that West African (WA) farmers’ livelihoods and food security will be increasingly affected by future losses in biodiversity [6]. Driven by high urbanization rates in West Africa, the predominant staple food production in rural areas is increasingly complemented by urban and peri-urban agricultural (UPA) systems that are characterized by an intensive, market-oriented, and diverse horticultural production
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