62345728629The pollination of apples in Maoxian has to be completed
within five days in order for the trees to bear fruit. When the
trees blossom, the villagers go out en masse, armed with small
paint brushes. They use homemade pollination sticks made
from chicken feathers and cigarette filters and dip them into
a pot full of purchased pollen, and then rub the end of the
stick to the pistils of the tree flowers. Children clamber up to
pollinate the higher parts of the tree. One person can pollinate
between five to 10 trees in a day.
In a village in Nanxin, farmers have been using
hand-pollination – also called “mechanical pollination” –
for the past two decades to ensure their trees yield fruit.
However, the long-term viability of hand pollination is being
challenged by rising labour costs and continuously declining
fruit yields.
H u m a n i m pac t
BioProfit conducted an investigation into the declining bee
issue in the Sichuan Valley in 2001. Unable to identify one
exact cause of their disappearance, scientists put it down to
several factors. Pesticide was one significant influence, as
was over-farming, resulting in the destruction of the bees’
natural habitat. They also found that commercial bees had
been introduced to the area to counteract the deficit in the
numbers of indigenous bees, but, according to BioProfit, the
overuse of pesticides subsequently killed them all.
Surely, then, there should be some form of pesticide
regulation in place? As it turns out, there is. China’s Ministry
of Agriculture has set out standards for use, but implementing
them is another story. While there are natural pesticides
available, they cost far more than the chemical equivalents,
and so, the budget-conscious farmer will go for the cheaper,
albeit more environmentally harmful, option.The 1990s saw overall apple
productivity decline by half,
attributed to the mysterious
disappearance of beesIMAGE © SHUTTERSTOCK