Mass death of bees associated with the production of rapeseed for Europe

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Dead bees are removed from apiaries in bags. In 30 regions of Russia, bees died en masse in apiaries. Almost everywhere, beekeepers blame farmers for what happened - they treated the fields with dangerous pesticides, which poisoned the insects …

The honey pumping season is in full swing. But not all beekeepers will be able to harvest - this year many apiaries have been ruined. Moreover, this problem is relevant for many regions of Russia. How the global demand for biofuels and smuggling from Uzbekistan affected the honey market and what kills bees, the RT correspondent in Bashkiria found out.

© Alexey Boyarsky / RT

Bashkiria, Buzdyaksky district, the village of Novotavlarovo. About 120 km from Ufa. On the gate in front of Lena and Ildar's house there is a warning: “Caution! Bees! In a relatively small area between the apple trees there are 40 beehives. A sunny day is a good time to collect nectar. However, bees only rustle at the entrances (cracks in hives, insect entrances), but do not curl.

“Here I am standing next to you, you are standing - zero attention. There is no one to sting, to drive us away. In the families (the hive is one bee colony - RT), only young growth remained. Almost all of the worker bees died in June. Many are right there in that field,”Lena explains and points her hand somewhere beyond the outskirts.

The former collective farm lands are located near the village. Some remained with the villagers, some were transferred to the local agricultural enterprise. A neighbor who lives on the same street has eradicated the weeds in his field - he took a barrel of Elamet herbicide and right in broad daylight filled the blossoming sprouts with all his heart. I did not consider it necessary to warn the beekeepers, of whom there are about a dozen in the village. The agronomist of an agricultural enterprise did the same on a scale of hundreds of hectares. Daytime and silently. Although, according to the rules, the processing of fields with pesticides is allowed only at night (when the bees do not fly). And it is necessary to warn the beekeepers about this in advance - to advertise even in the local newspaper, even at the door of the village council. Then the owners of the bees will either not release them from the hives, or they will be transported away from the poisoned fields. None of this happened. As a result, the poison was poured directly over the living insects on the flowers. Some of the worker bees, of which there are about 60% in the family, died right in the fields, the rest - already in the hive.

“Here, a novice farmer sowed 300 hectares with mustard,” says beekeeper Amir Mardanov from Iglinsky District. - He also did not say anything to anyone. And we have apiaries nearby. As soon as we saw that he had begun processing, we rushed to him. They hardly persuaded us to postpone two days so that we could take out the hives. It is impossible to close them in the heat - the bees will cook. He did not want to be interrupted at all - he said that he had invested 50 million rubles in the field. Apparently credit. And then a cabbage moth or some other bug is eating. But when we caught up with his car, there were three of us, and he was alone. And so they persuaded."

Farmers often fulfill the warning requirement only formally.

“In my village near the store they put up an announcement that the chemical treatment of the fields will be carried out from August 29 to September 29. I can't lock up the bees for a month,”says Ivan Vavilov, head of the public organization“Beekeepers of Bashkiria”.

Amir transported his 130 beehives in a few trips on a caravan. In the Iglinsky beekeepers, some of the bees managed to die - the families are weakened, but generally saved. But Lena and Ildar and most of their neighbors will have to actually rebuild the apiaries from scratch. A full-fledged family will not be reborn from sick bees. We'll have to buy new ones. Yes, and the hives need to be changed - the old ones are poisoned by the introduced poison.

The losses are serious. A bee colony of a Central Russian breed with a hive - about 10 thousand rubles. 40 hives - 400 thousand rubles. And that's not counting more than a ton of honey (one bee colony - about 30 kg) that the apiary could give this season.

“We will gradually restore it. And what to do when selling honey is now the main source of income for us,”says Lena.

It is almost impossible to get compensation from the farmer. At least, there have been no precedents in Russia yet.

Due to the production of rapeseed for Europe, problems with honey began in Russia

Global conjuncture against agriculture

Similar stories - not only in Bashkiria, but in general throughout the country. This happens every year, but it was this summer that the death of bees acquired some catastrophic volumes.

“According to my estimates, there are about 500 thousand bee colonies in Bashkiria. Of these, about 40-50 thousand died. That is, almost 10% ", - estimates Sergei Mulyukov, head of the trading and production company" Bashkir Apiary + ".

In recent years, the demand for biodiesel in the world has been growing. The optimal raw material for its production is rapeseed. More and more sown areas began to be given to it in Russia. On the one hand, beekeepers are happy - unlike, for example, the same export wheat, rape is a melliferous plant. But in order to protect it from pests, it must be treated with poison much more often than other crops.

“This year we have sown even more rapeseed. In theory, all treatment with herbicides from the same cabbage moth should be completed before flowering. But the rains passed - the poison was washed away, the pest remained. I had to poison it again, the Bashkir Ministry of Agriculture explained to RT.

A common problem is the low level of qualifications of farmers and, in general, the culture of farming. Firstly, if you follow the principle of crop rotation, then you need to treat it with herbicides less. Secondly, the required concentration of the herbicide is calculated only in agricultural holdings, and an ordinary farmer pours a horse dose - “to be sure”. And, finally, everyone is trying to use the cheapest herbicides - strong, broad spectrum, from which not only bees, cows die.

Also on the topic

The Rosselkhoznadzor named the cause of the mass death of bees in Russia

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“There are herbicides that have already been banned in Europe precisely because of bees, so they sell them to us,” says Amir Ishemgulov, general director of the Bashkir Research Center for Beekeeping and Apitherapy.

At the same time, now no one controls what kind of chemistry the farmer uses - this function was removed from the Rosselkhoznadzor several years ago.

In Canada and a number of other countries, beekeepers do not even earn money on honey - plant breeders pay them to place an apiary next to their plantations. More bees - better pollination and higher yield.

“We have noticed this only in the Krasnodar Territory and Altai: they pay 1, 5-3 thousand rubles per colony,” says Professor Alexei Nikolenko, head of the laboratory of biochemistry of insect adaptability at the Institute of Biochemistry and Genetics of the Ufa Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Others rely on forest bees and other insects or simply plant self-pollinated hybrids.

“When I go to negotiate with a farmer to bring an apiary to his land, I immediately carry a three-liter jar of honey,” says Amir Mardanov. - Well, yes, it turns out, I also cry. The only thing you can count on is that the hives will be looked after."

• From spring to autumn, nomadic apiaries can move several times
• © Alexey Boyarsky / RT

But if nothing changes, then very soon we will have “like in Canada”. And that's not great at all.

“Europe and America have already gone through all this,” says Vladimir Kuznetsov, director of the National Park of Bashkiria. - Rapeseed, mustard cannot be grown without a lot of chemicals. Modern drugs not only poison those already on the field, but attract insects from the surrounding areas. They want to poison, for example, cabbage moth. But bees and other pollinators also fly there and die. Even those who would have ignored this plant earlier are flying. This chemistry has a mesmerizing effect on bees, like sugar syrup. By killing pollinating insects, we lose biodiversity - a number of plants on the territory disappear, because of this, a number of insects and animals also disappear. In Europe, due to the massive use of herbicides, insect problems. For example, in Poland today there is a program to return bees to forests - there is no one to pollinate. And now Europe is reducing its rapeseed plantations - throwing off its production to us, as a third world country."

Beekeeping horse breeder

“Why Bashkiria, Bashkir honey? - explains the entrepreneur Sergei Mulyukov. - It happened historically. Someone in the Soviet State Planning Committee decided that Bashkiria would become the country's main supplier of honey. It was packed in cans like canned food. And they wrote "Bashkir honey". It was a brand like black caviar or Armenian cognac. If it was necessary to resolve some issue in Moscow, they took these banks with them for offerings."

Mulyukov leads to the filling shop and demonstrates a metal can - here they began to revive the legendary container.

Bashkiria was chosen, of course, not by chance. According to one of the etymological versions, Bashkir (Bashkort) means "lord of the bees" ("bash" - head, "court" - bee). The historical background is evident. And they are quite understandable - on the territory of the republic today, 60% of all linden forests of the country. It is lime honey that is most loved in Russia. And forest honey is clearly more useful than collected from agricultural crops in chemically treated fields.

• Honey can be called linden only if it contains more than 30% linden
• © Alexey Boyarsky / RT

Once upon a time there were large apiaries from 1000 beehives at state farms, and simply specialized bee farms. Today, more than 90% of bee colonies are owned by private traders holding 20-100 hives (this is an estimate of the Bashkir Ministry of Agriculture).

And honey in factory jars on the shelves of the supermarket, unless it is Chinese, is bought from such beekeepers.

The farm of 200 bee families is considered "professional". Keeping more than 800 hives is already industrial beekeeping. But the "industrialists" in the republic can now be counted on the fingers of one hand. The attitude of the state towards beekeeping as a part of agriculture is clearly characterized by a simple fact - even in the Ministry of Agriculture of "honey" Bashkiria there is no separate specialist responsible for apiaries. Beekeeping was assigned to a horse breeding supervisor.

Industry-wide hobby

It's funny, but Winnie the Pooh's observation that honey is "a very strange thing" is quite accurate. It is not clear whether he is, or he is not. It seems that we buy it in stores, eat it. We choose according to taste, we argue about which one is considered real and correct. But for the state, this sector of agriculture does not seem to exist.

• On the highways, honey is bought only by tourists and truckers - locals buy only from familiar beekeepers
• © Alexey Boyarsky / RT

The lion's share of the hives is not registered at all - the estimate of the total number was made taking into account the fact that the owners, when issuing an apiary passport, underestimate its scale by an average of three to five times. Even taxes, almost none of these beekeepers, for whom 90% of the market, does not pay - they sell honey from hand to hand. And the trade volumes are laughable. Today in Russia the consumption of honey per capita is less than 0.5 kg. Moreover, for example, in Japan and Germany - several kilograms.

“Our task is to move from a hobby to a business,” says Amir Ishemgulov from the Bashkir Research Center for Beekeeping and Apitherapy. - Today in Russia they collect only 70 thousand tons of honey. And the honey potential of plants in Bashkiria alone is 175 thousand tons of marketable product”.

Beekeeping in Russia is reviving today - both as a hobby and as a business. It's a good and profitable business. Replacing sugar with honey in the diet of citizens is beneficial to health. But there is also export. Russia has every chance of becoming the largest honey seller. We have forests, fields. The rest is a matter of technology and investment.

“In Canada, there are apiaries for 20 thousand hives, which are served by a family of three,” says beekeeper Sergei Mulyukov."There are hives made of light materials, special loaders, autocars, pumping lines, etc."

At current costs, such a plant for the production of honey is cheaper than a pig-breeding plant or a poultry farm: there is a minimum of electricity, and if there are fields and forests nearby, then feed is free. And small home apiaries will also not be superfluous. Given the low cost of start-up investments and the minimum risks of crop failure, it is for beekeeping that grants are most willingly given under regional programs to eliminate unemployment and develop small business.

Proboscis guest workers

But in order to raise the industry, it is necessary to solve not only the issue of coordination between farmers and beekeepers, but also a bunch of seemingly small but important problems. For example, just as the cheap labor of unskilled Asian migrant workers significantly reduces the quality of services, Uzbek bees threaten Russian beekeeping. In the spring they are brought in by wagons. And they sell bee colonies in boxes (bee package) right from the board. No veterinary and other documents. But the point is not even that this contraband can bring infection. Mixing with the Central Russian bee, the southern one gradually displaces it.

“No chauvinism,” explains Professor Nikolenko. - A normal worker bee. He works hard, hard. But in each region the local breed works best. Firstly, it is adapted to the climate. Uzbek does not tolerate our winter well. Secondly, it is tailored for traditional honey plants. The Central Russian bee prefers linden. And in a short period of flowering linden will not be distracted by anything else. But the Uzbek is all the same. The linden will be closer - it will take from the linden. The sunflower field will be closer (it makes the cheapest honey - RT) - it will fly to it. We need to protect the breed. For example, in Australia, which has now promoted its honey on the world market, it is forbidden to import other people's bees”.

• In the laboratory of the Institute of Biochemistry, they accurately determine which bees and where they collected nectar
• © Alexey Boyarsky / RT

Southern bees are noticeably cheaper than Central Russian bees: 2 thousand rubles per packet against 5 thousand rubles.

In the traditional approach, the bee is like a feeding cow. She is cherished. For the winter, the hive is removed indoors, the bees are left to feed until spring a noticeable part of the collected honey, sugar syrup is added. But if we are not talking about a hobby, but about a business, an industrial approach, then it is often more convenient to buy a bee package in the spring, let the bees work until autumn, and then destroy it. Buy new ones in the spring. It turns out to be more profitable than feeding in winter.

“We do not allow these Uzbek trucks into our area,” said beekeepers in the Iglinsky district. - As soon as we see the car, we immediately go out to talk, call the police. Those never have normal documents for the goods. Therefore, they prefer not to make trouble and quietly get out."

Towards Apimondia

In two years, Bashkiria will host an international congress of beekeepers "Apimondia-2021". This is such a "honey Olympiad". The first and only time Russia received it in 1971. The fact that this time the country won the right to host Apimondia can be considered a recognition. They love Russian honey abroad. But its export is a matter of tons, and the content of antibiotics in it exceeds the requirements of the EU and even China. Many beekeepers do not use modern medicines at all - disinfection in hives is carried out with wormwood. But with commercial volumes, this approach is unacceptable. Therefore, large manufacturers use antibiotics.

Considering that the industry, in fact, does not exist, there is no necessary infrastructure either. First of all, laboratories that could determine the content of antibiotics and other parameters necessary for obtaining a European certificate. For example, now, to prove that bees died due to chemical poisoning, they were sent from Bashkiria to laboratories in other regions. Local - exclusively veterinary, can only find disease. Another nuance - unlike, for example, cows or pigs, bees are not considered an asset. No insurance company in Russia will undertake to insure them. And the bank will not issue a loan against such a buzzing security. Perhaps that is why big business is not yet eager to buy Canadian industrial apiaries. But sooner or later they will appear. How large pig-breeding factories appeared. The main thing is that at the same time some "plague of bees" does not appear and small apiaries do not destroy, as once the pigs in private farmsteads.

• Amir Ishemgulov considers the holding of "Apimondia-2021" in Russia as world recognition of our beekeepers
• © Alexey Boyarsky / RT