The impact of honey bee colony quality on crop yield and farmers’ profit in apples and pears

GESLIN, BENOÎT; AIZEN, MARCELO A.; GARCIA, NANCY; PEREIRA, ANA-JULIA; VAISSIÈRE, BERNARD E.; GARIBALDI, LUCAS A.

AGRICULTURE, ECOSYSTEMS AND ENVIRONMENT

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

Año: 2017 vol. 248 p. 153 - 161

0167-8809

Despite global interest in the role of pollinators for food production, their impact on farmers? profit, whichdetermines farmers? livelihood and land-use decisions, is unclear. Although average values of pollinator benefitsare generally assumed, there is potential for large spatial variation among crop species and varieties or amongpollinator management strategies, even within the same region and year.We studied how quality of honey bee colonies used for pollination services, which included artificial feedingduring winter and pathogen control, affect flower visitation, fruit production, and farmers? profit in the mainapple and pear producing region of Argentina (Patagonia).For apple, high-quality colonies exhibited flower-visitation rates 130% greater than conventional colonies.Indeed, high-quality colonies increased fruit set by 15% (increasing production quantity), seed set and fruitsugar content, and subsequently farmeŕs profits by 70%. For pear, colony quality only affected fruit weight of theAbate Fetel variety, but not that of the Packham?s Triumph variety. Fruits were ∼20% heavier in farms deployinghigh quality colonies but did not contribute to increase farmers? profits to the extent that it did for apple.In contrast to studies conducted elsewhere, we did not observe any wild pollinators visiting apple or pearflowers, highlighting the fragility of this conventionally intensified crop production system. We found that suchorchard systems can suffer large pollinator deficits affecting farmers? profit. Given that A. mellifera was the onlyflower visitor, we could estimate the impact of improving colony management on farmer?s profit without theinfluence of other pollinators. Our study also shows that variations within pome crops, i.e. apples and varieties ofpears, in pollinator benefits can be very large, and that the assumption of global average values to guide localrecommendations can be misleading.