Pollination and food security: win-win scenarios between pollinator diversity and crop yield for smallholdings worldwide

GARIBALDI, LUCAS A.

Congreso; Apimondia 2015; 2015

p { margin-bottom: 0.25cm; line-height: 120%; }Closing gaps in cropyield while enhancing sustainability is among the greatest challengesfor achieving food security. Ecological intensification, theimprovement of crop yield through ecosystem services provided bybiodiversity, may be a sustainable pathway. However, data supportingsuch an approach are missing, especially for two billionsmallholders, many of which are undernourished. Despite fruit or seedset of many crops relies on pollinators, management for improvedpollination services is uncommon, likely contributing to yield gapsglobally. Indeed, pollination has been neglected even in the studiesanalyzing the continental or global drivers of yield gaps. Pollinatordeficits may be more significant than before, as (i) other resources(e.g. nutrients) are increasingly provided (e.g. fertilizers) tocrops, (ii) cultivated area of pollinator-dependent crops isexpanding more rapidly than the area of pollinator-independent crops,(iii) cultivated area of pollinator-dependent crops is also expandingmore rapidly than the stock of managed honey bee colonies, and (iv)wild populations of pollinators are increasingly threatened.Furthermore, pollinator-dependent crops provide essentialmicronutrients to humans in those regions of the world wheremicronutrient deficiencies are common. To date, it is uncertain towhat degree local populations of pollinators need to be enhanced(?flower-visitor gap?), and how much of the yield gaps (kg ha-1)can be closed by such management. Using the same coordinatedprotocol, we quantified to what degree enhancing flower-visitordensity can close yield gaps on 344 fields from 33pollinator-dependent crop systems in small- and large-holdings fromAfrica, Asia, and Latin America. For <2ha holdings, we found thatyield gaps could be closed by a median of 24% through higherflower-visitor density. For larger holdings, such level of yieldbenefits only occurred if they sustained high flower-visitorrichness. Therefore, biodiversity can compensate the negative effectsof field size. Worldwide, our study demonstrates that ecologicalintensification can create win-win scenarios between biodiversity andcrop yield.