Farming with Alternative Pollinators benefits pollinators, natural enemies, and yields, and offers transformative change to agriculture

Stefanie Christmann, Youssef Bencharki, Soukaina Anougmar, Pierre Rasmont, Moulay Smaili, Athanasios Tsivelikas and Aden Aw-Hassan
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Stefanie Christmann: ICARDA - International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas [Maroc] - ICARDA - International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas - CGIAR - Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research [CGIAR]
Youssef Bencharki: ICARDA - International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas [Maroc] - ICARDA - International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas - CGIAR - Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research [CGIAR]
Soukaina Anougmar: CEE-M - Centre d'Economie de l'Environnement - Montpellier - UM - Université de Montpellier - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement - Institut Agro - Montpellier SupAgro - Institut Agro - Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement, ICARDA - International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas [Maroc] - ICARDA - International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas - CGIAR - Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research [CGIAR]
Pierre Rasmont: UMONS - Université de Mons / University of Mons
Moulay Smaili: INRA Maroc - Institut national de la recherche agronomique [Maroc]
Athanasios Tsivelikas: ICARDA - International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas [Maroc] - ICARDA - International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas - CGIAR - Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research [CGIAR]
Aden Aw-Hassan: Auteur indépendant

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Abstract: Low-and middle-income countries cannot afford reward-based land sparing for wildflower strips to combat pollinator decline. Two small-grant projects assessed, if an opportunity-cost saving landsharing approach, Farming with Alternative Pollinators, can provide a method-inherent incentive to motivate farmers to protect pollinators without external rewards. The first large-scale Farmingwith-Alternative-Pollinators project used seven main field crops in 233 farmer fields of four agroecosystems (adequate rainfall, semi-arid, mountainous and oasis) in Morocco. Here we show results: higher diversity and abundance of wild pollinators and lower pest abundance in enhanced fields than in monocultural control fields; the average net-income increase per surface is 121%. The higher income is a performance-related incentive to enhance habitats. The income increase for farmers is significant and the increase in food production is substantial. Higher productivity per surface can reduce pressure on (semi)-natural landscapes which are increasingly used for agriculture. Land-use change additionally endangers biodiversity and pollinators, whereas this new pollinator-protection approach has potential for transformative change in agriculture.

Date: 2021-09-14
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-env and nep-ppm
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Published in Scientific Reports, 2021, 11, pp.18206. ⟨10.1038/s41598-021-97695-5⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03355596

DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-97695-5

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