Hostname: page-component-686fd747b7-mrck6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-13T14:23:50.789Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Grower perceptions of native pollinators and pollination strategies in the lowbush blueberry industry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 September 2013

Samuel P. Hanes ,
Kourtney K. Collum ,
Aaron K. Hoshide  and
Eric Asare
Samuel P. Hanes*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Maine, Orono, Maine, USA.
Kourtney K. Collum
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Maine, Orono, Maine, USA.
Aaron K. Hoshide
Affiliation:
School of Economics, University of Maine, Orono, Maine, USA.
Eric Asare
Affiliation:
School of Economics, University of Maine, Orono, Maine, USA.
*
* Corresponding author: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Pollinator declines and dependence on insect pollination, particularly in fruit and vegetable crops, creates a pressing need to understand growers' interactions with pollinators and factors affecting pollination strategies. At present, many growers are dependent on commercial honey bees (Apis mellifera), but diversified strategies may be necessary to secure adequate crop pollination in the future. As of yet, little social science research exists on pollination practices. This article presents the results of a survey of lowbush blueberry growers in Maine. The survey was part of a five-year pollination security study focusing on four fruit and vegetables crops in the Northeast US. The survey assesses grower perceptions of native pollinators' effectiveness and their perceptions of native pollinators' contribution to fruit set. Results indicate a widespread perception among growers of native pollinators' importance. While native pollinators are not effective enough to replace rented honey bees for three-quarters of the industry, they are broadly seen as an important form of insurance in poor weather when honey bees' effectiveness is reduced. The main obstacle to greater utilization of native pollinators found in this study was uncertainty over native pollinators' contribution to yield and the associated difficulty monitoring native pollinators' population size. Scientists and extension experts must work to reduce these obstacles before more widespread use of native pollinators will occur.

Keywords

pollinationperceptions of pollinatorsagricultural diversityMaine agricultureblueberries
Type
Preliminary Report
Information
Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems , Volume 30 , Issue 2 , April 2015 , pp. 124 - 131
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Kluser, S. and Peduzzi, P. 2007. Global Pollinator Decline: A Literature Review. UNEP/GRID-Europe. Available at Web site http://www.grid.unep.ch/products/3_Reports/Global_pollinator_decline_literature_review_2007.pdf (verified January 16, 2013).Google Scholar
2 Potts, S.G., Biesmeijer, J.C., Kremen, C., Neumann, P., Schweiger, O., and Kunin, W.E. 2010. Global pollinator declines: Trends, impacts and drivers. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 25(6):345–353.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
3 National Research Council. 2007. Status of Pollinators in North America. National Academies Press, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
4 van Engelsdorp, D., Evans, J.D., Saegerman, C., Mullin, C., Haubruge, E., Kim Nguyen, B., Frazier, M., Frazier, J., Cox-Foster, D., Chen, Y., Underwood, R., Tarpy, D.R., and Pettis, J.S. 2009. Colony collapse disorder: A descriptive study. PLoS ONE 4(8):1–17.Google Scholar
5 Pettis, J.S. and Delaplane, K.S. 2010. Coordinated responses to honey bee decline in the USA. Apidologie 41(3):256–263.Google Scholar
6 Ricketts, T.H., Regetz, J., Steffan-Dewenter, I., Cunningham, S.A., Kremen, C., Bogdanski, A., Gemmill-Herren, B., Greenleaf, S.S., Klein, A.M., Mayfield, M.M., Morandin, L.A., Ochieng', A., and Viana, B.F. 2008. Landscape effects on crop pollination services: Are there general patterns? Ecology Letters 11(5):499–515.Google Scholar
7 van Engelsdorp, D. and Meixner, M.D. 2010. A historical review of managed honey bee populations in Europe and the United States and the factors that may affect them. 2010. Journal of Invertebrate Pathology 103(S1):S80–S95.Google Scholar
8 Gallai, N., Salles, J., Settele, J., and Vaissière, B.E. 2009. Economic valuation of the vulnerability of world agriculture confronted with pollinator decline. Ecological Economics 68(3):810–821.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
9 Garibaldi, L.A., Aizen, M.A., KIein, A.M., Cunningham, S.A., and Harder, L.D. 2011. Global growth and stability of agricultural yield decrease with pollinator dependence. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the United States of America 108(14):5909–5914.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
10 Klein, A.-M., Vaissiere, B.E., Cane, J.H., Steffan-Dewenter, I., Cunningham, S.A., Kremen, C., and Tscharntke, T. 2007. Importance of pollinators in changing landscapes for world crops. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 270(1518):955–961.Google Scholar
11 Morse, R.A. and Calderone, N.W. 2000. The value of honey bees as pollinators of U.S. crops in 2000. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 116(3/4):289–292.Google Scholar
12 Bauer, D.M. and Wing, I.S. 2010. Economic consequences of pollinator declines: A synthesis. Agricultural and Resource Economics Review 39(3):368–383.Google Scholar
13 Sumner, D.A. and Borriss, H. 2006. Bee-economics and the leap in pollination fees. Agricultural and Resource Economics Update 9(3):9–11.Google Scholar
14 Burgett, M., Daberkow, S., Rucker, R., and Thurman, W. 2010. U.S. pollination markets: Recent changes and historical perspective. American Bee Journal 150(1):35–41.Google Scholar
15 Garibaldi, L.A., Steffan-Dewenter, I., Kremen, C., Morales, J.M., Bommarco, R., Cunningham, S.A., Carvalheiro, L.G., Chacoff, N.P., Dudenhöffer, J.H., Greenleaf, S.S., Holzschuh, A., Isaacs, R., Krewenka, K., Mandelik, Y., Mayfield, M.M., Morandin, L.A., Potts, S.G., Ricketts, T.H., Szentgyörgyi, H., Viana, B.F, Westphal, C., Winfree, R., and Klein, A.M. 2011. Stability of pollination services decreases with isolation from natural areas despite honey bee visits. Ecology Letters 14(10):1062–1072.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
16 Garibaldi, L.A., Steffan-Dewenter, I., Winfree, R., Aizen, M.A., Bommarco, R., Cunningham, S.A., Kremen, C., Carvalheiro, L.G., Harder, L.D., Afik, O., Bartomeus, I., Benjamin, F., Boreux, V., Cariveau, D., Chacoff, N.P., Dudenhöffer, J.H., Freitas, B.M., Ghazoul, J., Greenleaf, S., and Hipólito, J. 2013. Wild pollinators enhance fruit set of crops regardless of honey bee abundance. Science 339(6127):1608–1611.Google Scholar
17 Brittain, C., Kremen, C., and Klein, A.-M. 2013. Biodiversity buffers pollination from changes in environmental conditions. Global Change Biology 19(2):540–547.Google Scholar
18 Breeze, T.D., Bailey, A.P., Balcombe, K.G., and Potts, S.G. 2011. Pollination services in the UK: How important are honeybees? Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 142(3–4):137–143.Google Scholar
19 Partap, U., Partap, T., and Yonghua, H. 2001. Pollination failure in apple crop and farmers' management strategies in Hengduan Mountains, China. Acta Horticulturae 561:225–230.Google Scholar
20 Kasina, M., Kraemer, M., Martius, C., and Wittmann, D. 2009. Farmers' knowledge of bees and their natural history in Kakamega district, Kenya. Journal of Apiculture Research 48(2):126–133.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
21 Munyuli, T. 2011. Farmers' perceptions of pollinators' importance in coffee production in Uganda. Agricultural Sciences 2(3):318–333.Google Scholar
22 Potts, S.G., Biesmeijer, J.C., Bommarco, R., Felicioli, A., Fischer, M., Jokinen, P., Kleijn, D., Klein, A.-M., Kunin, W.E., Nuemann, P., Penev, L.D., Petanidou, T., Rasmont, P., Roberts, S.P.M., Smith, H.K., Sørensen, P.B., Steffan-Dewenter, I., Vaissière, B.E., Vilà, M., Vujic, A., Woyciechowski, M., Zobel, M., Settele, J., and Schweiger, O. 2011. Developing European conservation and mitigation tools for pollination services: Approaches of the STEP (Status and Trends of European Pollinators) project. Journal of Apicultural Research 50(2):152–164.Google Scholar
23 Abaidoo, S. and Dickinson, H. 2002. Alternative and conventional agricultural paradigms: Evidence from farming in southwest Saskatchewan. Rural Sociology 67(1):114–131.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
24 Armstrong, A., Ling, E.J., Stedman, R., and Kleinman, P. 2011. Adoption of the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program in the New York City watershed: The role of farmer attitudes. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation 66(5):337–344.Google Scholar
25 Goldberger, J.R., Lehrer, N., and Brunner, J.F. 2011. Azinphos-methyl (AZM) phase-out: Actions and attitudes of apple growers in Washington State. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems 26(4):276–286.Google Scholar
26 Yarborough, D.E. 2012. Statistics—Wild Blueberry Crop Statistics. University of Maine Cooperative Extension. Available at Web site http://umaine.edu/blueberries/factsheets/statistics-2/statistics/ (verified January 16, 2013).Google Scholar
27 Jamieson, A.R. 2008. Developing seed-propagated lowbush blueberry families. HortScience 43(6):1686–1689.Google Scholar
28 Yarborough, D.E. 2004. Factors contributing to the increase in productivity in the wild blueberry industry. Small Fruits Review 3(1):33–43.Google Scholar
29 Drummond, F. 2012. Commercial bumble bee pollination of lowbush blueberry. International Journal of Fruit Science 12(1–3):54–64.Google Scholar
30 Stubbs, C.S. and Drummond, F.A. 2001. Bombus impatiens (Hymenoptera: Apidea): An alternative to Apis mellifera (Hymenoptera: Apidea) for lowbush blueberry pollination. Journal of Economic Entomology 94(3):609–616.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
31 Javorek, S.K., Mackenzie, K.E., and Vander Kloet, S.P. 2002. Comparative pollination effectiveness among bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) on lowbush blueberry (Ericaceae: Vaccinium angustifolium). Annals of the Entomological Society of America 95(3):345–351.Google Scholar
32 Drummond, F. 2002. Honey Bees and Blueberry Pollination. Fact sheet No. 629. University of Maine Cooperative Extension.Google Scholar
33 USDA (US Department of Agriculture). 2012. Census of Agriculture, Maine, 1965–2007. Available at Web site http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/usda/AgCensusImages/1945/01/01/1171/Table-02.pdf (verified December 15, 2012).Google Scholar
34 Rose, A. 2010. A characterization of Maine blueberry growers in 2010. Masters Thesis, University of Maine, Orono.Google Scholar
35 Rogers, E.M. 2003. The Diffusion of Innovations. 5th ed. Free Press, New York.Google Scholar