1 min
Generally, population increase is putting more pressure on our food system, with much more demands for food and its nutritional values remaining intact. Thus, achieving food sufficiency has become an important goal for many countries in order to become food sovereign; reducing both external and internal threats. To achieve this, every nation must increase food production intentionally to meet the demands of the people.
For crop production, one of the important factors that is less spoken about is the availability of sufficient pollinators, who contribute to food productivity. Sadly, over the last decades, the population of pollinators around us has been declining drastically. According to the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), in 2016 about 16% of vertebrate pollinators, such as birds and bats, and 40% of invertebrate pollinators, such as bees and butterflies, are at risk of extinction due to several human and non-human factors.
This was corroborated by Johanne Brunet in one of his articles titled "What are the main reasons for the worldwide decline in pollinator populations?". He stated that the population of pollinators are declining globally and more than 87% of flowering plant species and 87 of the leading global food crops - which corresponds to 35% of the global production volume of crops grown for human consumption - depend solely on pollinators for production. Thereby, the dependence on pollination by animals by farmers will continue to increase, as more farmlands of pollinator-dependent crops are being cultivated, especially in developing countries. Thus, any decline, as we currently witness, in the population of pollinators will significantly affect biodiversity conservation, reduce crop yields, increase food prices and threaten food security.
It is important for us as stakeholders to have a better understanding of the root causes of decline of pollinators in our society today, in order to guide the development of strategies and action plans to protect and conserve pollinators and the essential ecosystem services they provide for us especially in the agricultural sector in the developing countries. We therefore implore stakeholders to come together to support initiatives that help to revitalise and increase pollinators' population on our farmland. This could be policy-driven initiatives led by the government, private sector-led or non-governmental or others that promote safe havens to pollinators. Let's allow our pollinators back to the environment because they are our greatest asset towards our journey to food security! It starts from us!
Yours-in-Service
Babatunde
This was corroborated by Johanne Brunet in one of his articles titled "What are the main reasons for the worldwide decline in pollinator populations?". He stated that the population of pollinators are declining globally and more than 87% of flowering plant species and 87 of the leading global food crops - which corresponds to 35% of the global production volume of crops grown for human consumption - depend solely on pollinators for production. Thereby, the dependence on pollination by animals by farmers will continue to increase, as more farmlands of pollinator-dependent crops are being cultivated, especially in developing countries. Thus, any decline, as we currently witness, in the population of pollinators will significantly affect biodiversity conservation, reduce crop yields, increase food prices and threaten food security.
It is important for us as stakeholders to have a better understanding of the root causes of decline of pollinators in our society today, in order to guide the development of strategies and action plans to protect and conserve pollinators and the essential ecosystem services they provide for us especially in the agricultural sector in the developing countries. We therefore implore stakeholders to come together to support initiatives that help to revitalise and increase pollinators' population on our farmland. This could be policy-driven initiatives led by the government, private sector-led or non-governmental or others that promote safe havens to pollinators. Let's allow our pollinators back to the environment because they are our greatest asset towards our journey to food security! It starts from us!
Yours-in-Service
Babatunde
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