£1bn? Just this year’s invoice from the bees...

"If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man." So said Einstein. Whilst modern scientists would consider this a touch overdramatic, we are currently witnessing a worrying and largely unexplained decline in pollinator species that could have a dramatic effect on the agricultural economy.

In the last 20 years, there has been a 50% decline in bee numbers in the UK, with other pollinators also affected. According to the Parliamentary Office for Science and Technology, losing our pollinators would cost UK agriculture up to £440m/year – equivalent to ~13% of farming income. The retail value of what bees pollinate is thought to be worth £1bn alone.

Crops such as oilseed rape, runner beans and top and soft fruits will be hit, with a shortage of pollinators already effecting several highly insect-dependent crops. UK apple and raspberry growers are putting extra honeybees and bumblebees in their fields to get the best yield. Although not all crops will be affected – for example, cereal species are wind-pollinated – it would mean higher food prices in the UK and even a stronger reliance on imports.

And climate change could exacerbate the problem. UK farmers are being encouraged to diversify to other fruit crops in the face of environmental change, but pollinator decline could threaten this. Although pollinators with a broad climatic distribution may adapt, others could decline further or disappear altogether. The main threat is if food plants and pollinators respond differently, the flowering dates of blackcurrant and the emergence dates of its pollinators have already been found to have diverged by 28 days since the 1970s.

Of course, we could do it ourselves... In fact, in one area in China where the relevant pollinators are already extinct, farmers already have to resort to employing people to go round with “feather dusters” to pollinate pear trees. But it this really a practical solution? A study at Reading University estimating that the price of UK apple would double if it was pollinated by a human workforce paid at minimum wage.

So what’s happening to our pollinators? It seems a variety of factors lie behind the crisis, including everything from pesticides, biodiversity and habitat loss, to mobile phones and in the case of bees the varroa mite and a mysterious virus called ‘colony collapse disorder’.
And farming has had a role in this decline. Intensive agriculture reduces wildflower biodiversity, and if large areas of the countryside are dominated by one crop, once that crop stops blossoming, there’s nothing else for the pollinators to feed on. Ironically, urban areas can demonstrate higher numbers of pollinators due to the plant diversity in parks, gardens and balconies.

Measures to buffer diminishing biodiversity such as planting legumes and wildflower margins as part of the Campaign for Farmed Environment represent a way for farmers to safeguard these biological assets. Defra-backed research shows that these actions have already contributed to increasing the numbers and ranges of some of the UK's rarest bumblebee species.

What do you think? Are you taking measures to encourage pollinator diversity and do you think the rural community is doing enough? And can you envisage budgeting for a team of human pollinators…?

Kate O'Hagan is the administrator at Farming Futures. You can contact her on: k.ohagan@forumforthefuture.org

This is the second blog in a series of three exploring the importance of biodiversity to the agricultural industry. Read the first on crop diversity here.

Find out more:

• Watch this week’s Panorama on wildlife and farming (available on the BBC iPlayer)
• Visit the Campaign for Farmed Environment to learn more about how the measures you can use to protect biodiversity on your farm.
• Read the Farm Buzz