Australia
November 10, 2008
The well-documented worldwide
decline in the number of bees and other pollinators is not, at
this stage, limiting global crop yields, according to the
results of an international study published in the latest
edition of the respected science journal,
Current Biology.
Co-author, CSIRO Entomology’s
Dr Saul Cunningham, says however that the study detected warning
signs that demand for pollinators is still growing and some
highly pollinator-dependant crops are suffering.
“The research team scored crops on how much they depend on
pollinators for maximum production,” Dr Cunningham says.
“Depending on the crop, this dependence ranges from zero to 100
per cent. 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. There was also no
difference in yield growth between crops that require
pollinators and those that do not
“While this is a positive finding, the interaction between
yields and pollination is a hugely complex issue which needs to
be teased-out further,” Dr Cunningham says. “Global summaries
can also hide local stories. In some places, local pollinator
shortages are affecting local production. While these don’t
threaten overall global food supplies, they can have very
significant impacts on local communities and their economies.”
The researchers were surprised to discover that there has been a
global increase in the growing of pollinator-dependent crops,
particularly in the developing world.
“The fact that, while pollinators are declining in various parts
of the world, global agricultural systems are becoming more
dependent on pollinators, could create serious problems in the
future,” Dr Cunningham says.
When the group looked at pollinated crops in more detail, they
found that pollinator shortages might be beginning to affect
crops that rely heavily on pollination because their yield
growth was lower than for crops that were less dependent.
Dr Cunningham says they now want to examine how declining
pollinator supply might be increasing the costs of production.
Increased yields are usually the result of increasing farm
inputs such as fertiliser, labour and water. For some crops,
this increasingly intensive management may have, for now,
overcome any losses in pollinator service, but it also increases
production costs. There is also evidence that one response to
lower yield growth for highly pollinator dependent crops is a
growing demand for land.
Aizen Marcelo A, Garibaldi Lucas A, Cunningham, Saul A &
Klein Alexandra M. (2008)
Long-Term Global Trends in Crop Yield and Production Reveal No
Current Pollination Shortage but Increasing Pollinator
Dependency.
Current Biology 18: 1-4. |
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