The planting of polliniser trees, such as the crabapple
tree – which are introduced to the orchard to provide
pollen for the bees to fertilise with – may have been another
contributing factor. The Maoxin farmers were planting less
than 10 percent polliniser trees, thinking that it would not be
commercially viable to have more.
Climate change is the other major contributor to the
problem. The Maoxin farmers reported unusual changes in
weather patterns, such as rain and hailstorms uncharacteristic
for the blossoming season. Rapid temperature changes were
reported, too. And then there is the huge pollution problem
in China.
In 2011, BioProfit returned to the region. They found that
many farmers had substituted their apple plantations with
other crop varieties that didn’t require bees for pollination.
The once lucrative Maowen apple industry operates at a
fraction of its previous productivity.
The bigger pictur e
For most of us, the buzzing of bees amongst the flowers is a
quintessential part of a summer atmosphere, the sound of
lazy picnics in a sun-drenched meadow or of relaxing
afternoons sipping cold drinks lounging in a deckchair in the
garden. We should not take this sound for granted, for there
are now places in the world, such as the Sichuan Valley, where
this hum can no longer be heard – where the bees are gone.
Bees are perhaps the most important insects on the planet,
for they pollinate our crops; about three quarters of all the
types of crops we grow to eat need pollination by insects to
give a full crop yield. Without bees, we would not have
raspberries, runner beans, courgettes, tomatoes, chilli peppers
or coffee, to name just a few. About a third of all the food
we consume by weight depends upon pollinators. Without
bees, our diet would consist largely of produce from wind-
pollinated plants: rice, maize, wheat and barley. In short,
without bees our diets would be more than a little dull.
It is a common misconception that more or less all
pollination is done by honeybees, the familiar bees kept by
beekeepers from which we get honey. This is, however,
a very long way from the truth. There are some 20,000
known species of bee in the world, plus other insects such as
hoverflies, butterflies and beetles that also pollinate.
right A Chinese farmer
hand-pollinates a pear tree
at a farm in Hanyuan County,
Sichuan ProvinceAbout three quarters of all the
types of crops we grow to eat need
pollination by insects