Bees help crop live and lucerne

UNIVERSITY of Adelaide researchers have calculated that wild bees and other unmanaged insect pollinators contribute, on average, $22 million to the production of dryland seed lucerne annually.

They are now working to “future proof” these free crop pollination services to help build wild bee and other desirable insect populations.

“Australia’s lucerne seed industry is worth about $95 million with as much as 30-40 per cent grown under dryland conditions, although that can drop to 5-10 per cent in very dry years,” project co-leader Dr Katja Hogendoorn said.

“Lucerne seed production depends 100 per cent on insect pollination, but in 2014, Lucerne Australia identified that 66 per cent of dryland lucerne growers did not place hives in their lucerne.

“That means wild bees and other ‘free’ insect pollinators are contributing an average annual value of $22 million, possibly as high as $25 million, to lucerne seed production.

“That is a highly valuable resource that we need to nurture and promote.”

The researchers are now investigating what actions growers can undertake to help build secure populations of wild bees and other pollinating insects.

About 83 per cent of seed lucerne is grown in South Australia’s South East, with the rest in Victoria and New South Wales.

“We will be identifying the wild pollinators, finding out what other food resources can support their presence near lucerne paddocks; and investigating their activity pattern to establish when they need these resources, where they nest, and what they use to build their nests,” project co-leader Professor Andy Lowe said.

“This will enable us to produce guidelines and a web-based planning tool for growers to design plantings of Australian native plants around their crop that provide healthy food and shelter for these wild pollinators.”

This project is of particular importance because insect pollinators are in decline worldwide, because of pesticide use and habitat destruction.

The creation of habitat for crop pollinators is part of future-proofing pollination services in preparation for a likely Varroa mite incursion, which has decimated populations of wild honey bees worldwide.