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Cash crop farming in the Himalayas: the importance of pollinator management and managed pollination
| Publication Type | Journal Article |
| Year of Publication | 2003 |
| Authors | Uma Partap, |
| Journal Title | Biodiversity and the ecosystem approach in agriculture, forestry and fisheries. Proceedings, Rome, Italy, 12-13 October 2002 |
| Pagination | 224-246 |
| Key Words | agricultural policy; apples; beekeeping; cash crops; commercial; farming; food security; honey; honey bees; nature conservation; pollination; pollinators; population decrease; productivity; social insects; species diversity; Apis; Malus; Malus pumila |
| Abstract | The focus of agriculture in the Himalayan region is slowly shifting from traditional cereal crops to high-value cash crops such as fruits and vegetables. This transformation from subsistence systems to commercial agriculture poses new challenges for improving and maintaining productivity and quality. Among these challenges are crop failures due to inadequate pollination. This is caused by several factors, the most important of which include the lack of adequate number of pollinators as a result of decline in pollinator populations and diversity due to several factors such as decline in wilderness and loss of habitat, land use changes, monoculture-dominated agriculture, and excessive and indiscriminate use of agricultural chemicals and pesticides. Consequently, the need for ensuring pollination particularly through conserving pollinators and incorporating managed crop pollination has increased and will increase further. This calls for a more intensive focus on the issue from the perspective of policy, research, development and extension. Policy reorientation, improving institutional capabilities and human resources development are the key areas needing attention. Based on studies in apple pollination issues and farmers' concerns in Bhutan, China, India, Nepal and Pakistan, this paper presents a general picture of pollination issues faced by the farmers in the Himalayan region countries. It explains the importance of pollination in improving food security and livelihoods through enhancing agricultural productivity. It tries to analyse such issues as the decline in pollinator populations and its impact on agricultural productivity and implications on pollination management, and challenges to integrate pollination as a necessary input in agricultural policies and plans in light of the available information on pollination. This paper also emphasizes the need to conserve pollinator diversity to ensure pollination and at the same time it tries to present an alternative perception to beekeeping and that is "to promote" beekeeping primarily for crop pollination with honey and other bee products as byproducts. This new approach combines the two benefits well but institutional reorientation in the context of policies, research and extension might be necessary. |
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