Ireland's Crops Threatened By Lack Of Pollinators

Ireland's agricultural industry could be threatened by a lack of wild pollinators to meet growing levels of crop production.

Research involving botanists from Trinity College Dublin has shown the demand for "financially critical pollination services" has risen five times as fast as the number of honeybee colonies across Europe.

The research has raised concerns regarding how countries will cope with losses of other wild pollinators when honeybees alone cannot pollinate all crops.

Recent increases in the land area devoted crop plants such as oilseed rape and soya bean, which are used as biofuels, have led to an increased burden on wild pollinators.

Ireland has faced a 300% increase in oilseed rape cultivation in the last five years, while the EU has proposed a target that member states obtain 10% of their fuel from biofuel stocks by 2020.

The study saw 17 scientists compare the number of honeybee colonies with the demand for pollination services in 41 European countries between 2005 and 2010.

Honeybee colony numbers decreased in 15 countries over that period, while demand for pollination services increased.

Europe is currently facing a deficit of over 13.6 million colonies, indicating an increasing reliance on pollination services provided by wild insects.

Associate Professor in Botany and Director of the Trinity Centre for Biodiversity Research at Trinity, Jane Stout, who is co-author of the journal article, said: "Ireland has experienced a threefold increase in land area of cultivation of oilseed rape over the past five years. Since this crop has a higher yield when it is insect pollinated, this means that farmers in Ireland are more reliant on insect pollinators than in the past.

"This work emphasises the importance of wild pollinator conservation at the European scale, and shows that we must not be too reliant on managed honeybees to provide crop pollination."

(IT/JP)