Emerging Research on the Role of Bees in Agroecosystems
20 May 2025
Last update: 20/05/25 17:39
Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems are celebrating World Bee Day with an update to their World Bee Day Collection. Since last year, RAFS has published two additional papers related to bees and pollinator health.
Pethybridge et al. (2024) tested pollination efficacy under pest exclusion netting, finding that removing netting briefly mid-season contributed to the greatest number of pollinators, including bumblebees, in the crop rows – this approach even outperformed inserting a bumblebee hive into a closed row treatment. Greater pollination rates also significantly increased muskmelon number and marketable fruit weight .
Meanwhile, Anderzén et al. (2024) looked at the ecological, economic, social, and cultural importance of honeybees to smallholder coffee farmers in Chiapas, Mexico. They found that honey production created a diversification opportunity for coffee farmers that protected against income variability, as well as supporting greater nutritional health of farm families and emotional well-being of beekeepers.
Check out more from these papers in our online collection, and enjoy this World Bee Day 2025!
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