Europe has 13.4m too few honeybee colonies to properly pollinate its crops, according to new research from the University of Reading in the UK.
According to scientists at the University's Centre of Agri-Environmental Research, the discovery shows that demand for insect pollination is growing five times as fast as the number of honeybees present across Europe, as farmers grow more oil crops and fruit.
Researchers compared the numbers of active beehives to the demand for pollination services across 41 European countries, and mapped the changes between 2005 and 2010.
Among the findings were that in more than half of European countries, including the UK, France, Germany and Italy, there were not enough honeybees to properly pollinate the crops grown. The problem was particularly acute in Britain, which has only a quarter of the honeybees it needs to pollinate crops.
In fact, only Moldova – one of the continent's poorest countries, with an economy more than 300 times smaller than the UK – has a bigger honeybee deficit than the UK.
The findings suggest that agriculture in many countries is increasingly reliant upon wild pollinators, such as bumblebees, solitary bees and hoverflies. However, Europe still lacks coherent environmental and agricultural policies to protect these insects’ habitats.
Professor Simon Potts said: “We face a catastrophe in future years unless we act now. Wild pollinators need greater protection. They are the unsung heroes of the countryside, providing a critical link in the food chain for humans and doing work for free that would otherwise cost British farmers £1.8bn to replace.
“There is a growing disconnection between agricultural and environmental policies across Europe. Farmers are encouraged to grow oil crops, yet there is not enough joined-up thinking about how to help the insects that will pollinate them.
“We need a proper strategy across Europe to conserve wild bees and pollinators through habitat protection, agricultural policy and farming methods – or we risk big financial losses to the farming sector and a potential food security crisis.”
