The world has lost more than one-quarter of its land-dwelling insects in the past 30 years.
From bees and other pollinators crucial to the world’s food supply to butterflies that beautify places, bugs are disappearing at a rate of approximately one per cent a year, with variations from place to place, according to recent scientific studies. That is why “Pollinator Operation” is such an important project.
Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN) is working on the second phase of its project “Operation Pollinator”, to implement multi-functional vegetation zones (MVZ) that will benefit pollinators and beneficial insects in berry and corn farms in Mexico.
“Operation Pollinator” is a project funded by Syngenta Mexico with the participation of independent Costa Rican and ABC Mexico scientists. In its first stage, developed in 2019, the project focused on assessing the diversity of native plants and beneficial insects associated with the proposal of a comprehensive design of multi-functional vegetation zones (MVZ) in six farms in Mexico.
The second stage of the project will focus on the implementation of the MVZ design on these same berry farms in Jalisco and corn farms in Puebla. Plants will be reproduced in nurseries and planted in collaboration with the producers. Once these strips are mature, diversity of beneficial insects in these new habitats will be compared with the species originally found on these farms to proof the validity of this biodiversity enrichment strategy.
According to Oliver Bach, the SAN Technical Manager, “The six pilot farms of Pollinator Operation have prepared stripes of their land and are ready to plant a variety of flowering vegetation that will attract beneficial insects and stabilise the agroecosystem within their borders.”
“Local technicians in Puebla-Tlaxcala and Jalisco-Sayula have walked roadsides and fallow lands to collect thousands of wildflower seeds and made an inventory of other plant species available in commercial garden greenhouses. Based on the availability of these plants, a multi-functional vegetation stripe design was proposed to producers to consult for any possible conflicts with their maize and berry production systems or for possible pest or rodent species that could affect their farms’ productivity,” he adds.
The 2020 project phase lasts from February to November 2020, and will include visits to the six producers to explain the results of phase I, train them on good practices related to the MVZ, and choose the most suitable areas for their establishment.
Producers will also be trained on beneficial insects and their association with nectariferous plants, and a census will be conducted to compare the diversity of insects in the newly planted areas versus the monitored areas during September and October 2019.
The lessons learned in the six farms will be systematised and feed communication materials to promote these beneficial insect habitats sector-wide for their scale-up in the two areas with the goal of achieving insect-friendly productive landscapes.
Additionally, the six producers will be involved in a participatory research process to register the visitation of bees to the plantings, as well as the costs invested in establishment and maintenance of the MVZ for a future cost-benefit analysis of these areas.
The international scientific community has been warning of a severe decline in pollinator insect populations, especially of bees, with potentially disastrous consequences for agriculture and food production. Pollinators have been affected by many complex factors including pathogens, nutritional problems, climate change, and misuse of crop protection products.
A change in agricultural practices can benefit pollinators directly. The creation of natural vegetation patches – plant strips of wildflowers near pollinator-dependent crops – and the application of IPM (Integrated Pest Management) practices can decrease the pressure that habitat loss, climate change, and inappropriate pesticide use are exerting on the populations of pollinators and other beneficial insects for agriculture and increase the profitability of crop production.
