Commercial pollination services

Commercial pollination services Cue: Like people and animals, plants generally need contact with another, similar plant in order to produce offspring. In the case of flowering plants, the offspring are of course the seeds, sometimes contained within larger fruit. Plants fertilise each other through their pollen, which forms in the flower. Insects, such as bees, are attracted to the sugars in flower nectar, but as they move from flower to flower, they pick up tiny grains of pollen, stuck to their legs or bodies. These pollen grains drop into other flowers they visit, fertilising them. Pollen can also be spread on the wind, but when large numbers of insects are present, rates of pollination will also be much higher, and so will be the harvest. For this reason some commercial farmers are ready to pay to have bees kept in their fields. This is a completely different way for beekeepers to earn an income. In this situation, the bees may not produce much honey, but the bee-keeper will be paid by the farmer for the pollination services that the bees provide. In Zimbabwe, for example, beekeeper Judy Ross is paid 50 US cents per hive per day, and may rent over 100 hives to a single farmer for as much as 9 months of the year. Busani Bafana spoke to Judy about her pollination business, and began by asking just how much of a difference bees can make to a farmer?s crop yields. IN: ?On a commercial site ? OUT: ?been purely for pollination.? DUR?N: 4?54? BACK ANNOUNCEMENT: Judy Ross, a Zimbabwean bee-keeper who rents her bee hives to farmers, to improve crop pollination and thereby increase their yields. The interview comes from a radio resource pack produced by CTA. Transcript Ross On a commercial site you can expect up to 40% increase in the yield of your crop, but for everything you will get an increased crop. Bafana I take it then that a different crop will need a different number of hives? Ross That is correct yes. Depending on the crop, like say for instance runner beans, runner beans need two hives per hectare, but ...