Anjali Sharma
GG News Bureau
UNITED NATIONS, 21st May. UN on Saturday marked the World Bee day is abuzz with promoting their sustainable agricultural practices and respecting the role these pollinators play in nature.
Beekeepers around the world earn their livelihoods from the golden honey their bees produce but they play a critical role in pollinating 87 of 115 leading food crops worldwide.
FAO gaol is to ensure bee health in light of threats against them, including unsustainable agriculture, pesticide abuse, and intensive monoculture production.
The agency said pollination is essential for the maintenance of plant biodiversity, the survival of the world’s ecosystems with about 75 percent of crops which produce fruits and other seeds for human consumption depending, at least in part, on pollinators, including bees.
Pollinator-friendly practices include crop rotation and diversity, reducing the use of pesticides, and restoring and protecting their habitat. Even the adoption of precision agriculture tools and innovation can protect bees, the agency said.
To help to better protect the pollinators, the agency hosted and co-organized on Thursday the second International Symposium on Biosecurity in Beekeeping, bringing participants up to date on the latest developments in bee biosecurity and the initiatives that the international organizations involved are applying in different areas of the world to ensure bee health.
Nataša Pirc Musar, President of the Republic of Slovenia said that world Bee Day has contributed significantly to raising awareness of the importance of bees and other pollinators and to promoting international cooperation to protect them,”.
Slovenia initiated the establishment of a World Bee Day in 2016 at an FAO regional conference for Europe and co-created more than 300 pollinator projects with partners on all continents, she said.
UN marked World Bee Day with an FAO-hosted global ceremony emphasized the importance of these hard-working pollinators.
Under the theme of pollinator-friendly agricultural production, the event drew attention to the threats endangering these insects and the need to address them.
UN Headquarters will showcase best practices and innovative projects with a view to raising awareness of bees’ contributions to environmental and social resilience.
FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu said “Protecting bees and other pollinators is essential to guarantee agricultural production, food security, ecosystems restoration, and plant health,”
As beekeeper Ms. Moreno Veliz said “bees are extremely intelligent insects. They are beautiful animals.”
Ziad Sa’ad has a degree in media and communications but has always been a farmer and beekeeper in Al Qurnah, Iraq.
“Our community has a relationship with our land that is hard to describe; our fathers and grandfathers were also farmers,” he said. “Our work and life cycle on these farms are interdependent.”
Planting awareness on the importance of farms in the predominantly poor area was his goal.
He set up Facebook and WhatsApp groups on beekeeping and farming, and with occupational safety and health training from the ILO, he is spreading the word on social media and transferring the knowledge to local farmers.
“Our work in agriculture promotes economic opportunities, security and self-reliance,” he said. “It allows us to be independent.”
Gulhayo Khaydarova, from Durmon, Uzbekistan has been in beekeeping for 14 years, and the honey her bees produce, is famous throughout the village.
She said the traditions and secrets of beekeeping are passed down from generation to generation.
Last winter’s plummeting temperatures killed off most of her bees. Even the most experienced beekeepers can suffer this loss.
Food and Agriculture agency provided her family with modern beekeeping equipment and 20 new hives to compensate for her losses.
She has increased honey production, providing a more sustainable livelihood for her household.
“Bees are extremely intelligent insects,” said Ligia Elena Moreno Veliz, from La Fé, Venezuela. Once afraid of the pollinators, through an FAO scholarship, she now runs a thriving business specializing in queen bee breeding and is passing on knowledge to others.
She broke a glass ceiling. Today, while only four of the community’s 30 beekeepers are women, the taboo is now gone, she said.
She added climate change is worrisome. Climate instability, inconsistency in tree blooms and pollution cause bees to have new patterns of behaviour, adapting to the changes in flowering times.
Ligia Elena and her co-workers have planted new trees to attract bees again.to address this challenge.
“Beekeeping is my way of life,” she said. “It is the livelihood of my family and an activity that I hope my daughters will continue to do in the future.”
Betty Ayikoru, from Arua district in Uganda, is mother of four, a farmer, local councillor, and a beekeeper.
“That’s how I make a living,” she said.
She works with Honey Pride Arua, a social enterprise founded by Sam Aderubo and supported by the UN Capital Development Fund .
Over 1,700 farmers keep their bees in apiaries and at harvest time, they sell to Honey Pride.
“By engaging farmers, we are giving them alternative employment,” Mr. Aderubo said. “If beekeeping is taken to a level where farmers understand it as a business, it’s going to improve their livelihoods.”
Comments are closed.