If bees disappear from the face of the earth, then humanity will exist for 4 years

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

Tatarstan, Mordovia, Moscow, Ryazan, Saratov, Lipetsk, Voronezh, Smolensk, Rostov Regions, Krasnodar, Stavropol Territories … To what extent do the media reports correspond to reality and what is the reason for the mass death of bees?

According to Arnold Butov, President of the Russian Union of Beekeepers, the media, as often happens, exaggerate the scale of the disaster. For example, in the Stavropol and Krasnodar Territories, cases of mass death of bees were not recorded at all, in general, the problem exists and can turn into a real catastrophe not only for beekeepers, but also, in general, for humanity. It is not for nothing that Einstein is credited with the following statement: "If bees disappear from the face of the earth, then humanity will exist for four years." Whether the great scientist said it or not is not known for certain, but the fact that bees play a huge role in the ecological system and without them most plants will die, then the same fate will befall the animals feeding on them, well, and then it will come to humans - that's for sure.

According to the estimates of Alfir Mannapov, President of the National Association of Beekeepers and Processors of Bee Products, Head of the Beekeeping Department of the Timiryazev Agricultural Academy, Russia may lose more than a trillion rubles this summer due to the mass death of bees in a number of regions

Such a huge amount will come over because of the lost harvest of almost all agricultural crops. So bee death is not just an industry problem.

Indeed, according to the Ministry of Agriculture of the Stavropol Territory, no mass death of bees has been recorded in the region. This is all that the department managed to find out. They did not want to express themselves more substantively.

The Krasnodar Ministry of Agriculture was more detailed. The department reported that the mass death of bees in the region has not been registered, this year the number of apiaries has even increased and amounts to 790. “Planned antiepizootic measures are regularly carried out at the apiaries registered with the State Veterinary Service of the region. In order to prevent the death of bees, the ministry sent recommendations to the municipal governing bodies of the agro-industrial complex on the need to conduct explanatory work with agricultural producers. Explain to them the importance of compliance with the requirements of Sanitary Rules and Norms SanPiN 1.2.2584-10 "Hygienic Requirements for the Safety of Testing, Storage, Transportation, Sale, Application, Decontamination and Disposal of Pesticides and Agrochemicals" during agricultural work, as well as organize work on the mandatory notification of owners apiaries on the need to exclude the emergence of bees before the treatment of crops with pesticides."

Agrarian officials made it clear that they consider the human factor to be one of the main reasons for the mass death of bees. In the same Stavropol Territory, according to the head of the public organization "Pchelovod" Viktor Polukhin, ten years ago, in the vicinity of the village of Privolnoye, a case of mass death of bees was recorded after the processing of fields by aircraft. The beekeepers were not even warned about this.

I must say, the decline in the population of bees has been observed for ten years all over the world. Scientists explain this phenomenon by a number of factors: climate change, deforestation, the spread of parasites such as ticks, the effect of electromagnetic radiation from cell towers, which reduces insect immunity, but they all agree on one thing - the main reason is the uncontrolled use of pesticides

“In the days of the planned economy, the rule to inform beekeepers about the upcoming chemical treatments of fields and orchards was strictly followed,” says Arnold Butov, President of the Russian Union of Beekeepers. “Now, when there are many private owners, it is almost impossible to control this element. Moreover, after the Rosselkhoznadzor in this part of the control functions were taken away, handing over to Rospotrebnadzor, and his hands do not reach us, beekeepers.

Yes, Rospotrebnadzor does not have the authority to somehow influence the situation, it can only record the facts of violations of the law. According to Butov, the Russian Ministry of Agriculture has already matured a decision to return control over the use of pesticides and other chemicals to the Rosselkhoznadzor. If this happens, the situation may change for the better. In the meantime, everything is at the mercy of agricultural producers. Some are ready to comply with the law, others are not interested in anything other than their own profits.

Experienced Stavropol beekeeper Lev Novopashin this year for the first time was forced to leave his equipped apiary in the vicinity of the village of Ladovskaya Balka, Krasnogvardeisky district and move to the neighboring Novoaleksandrovsky urban district, closer to the borders of Krasnodar Territory, since in the sunflower fields from which his bees take the main chemical treatments will be carried out. The beekeepers were warned about this in advance.

Five years ago, according to Novopashin, there was no mass processing of sunflower seeds with pesticides at all. It's just that Russia did not have such a technique capable of spraying tall crops. Progress is relentless, new technology has come to the fields of sunflower. And this is the main honey plant in the South of Russia. Now the beekeeper Novopashin has a nomadic life. It's good that they warn you so far.

In recent years, the area under rapeseed crops has grown significantly. This industrial crop is in great demand in foreign markets, its profitability is almost two times higher than that of wheat, the main crop of southern Russia, which led to an increase in acreage. Rape, by the way, is a good honey plant; it can become, along with sunflower, the main source of honey in the region. But the technology of its cultivation provides for the significant use of pesticides. It is in rapeseed fields that cases of mass poisoning of bees have been recorded.

According to Butov, the pesticide market is developing at a rapid pace. On the one hand, this brings huge profits to chemical companies, on the other hand, agricultural producers, striving to increase crop yields, that is, to the same profit, are themselves ready to pour any muck on the fields, just to ensure the growth of the profitability of their business. Nobody thinks about such "trifles" as bees. There are already such sunflower hybrids, for example, which do not need pollination. Why then bees? - the negligent farmers argue.

In recent years, such strong pesticides have been invented that are capable of destroying most pests in the fields. Many of them are based on neonicotinoids, substances related to nicotine that are also harmful to bees

Some farmers in the West reject them, realizing that they destroy everything: both harmful and useful. Our agricultural producers are far from such ecological literacy.

Recently I attended a Field Day at one of the farms in the Stavropol Territory. There, a number of international companies have demonstrated their seed and crop protection products. The insecticide coragen, which is safe for bees, was also presented. But, according to a representative of the developer company, many agricultural producers prefer cheaper generic counterparts to him, which do not differ in tolerance to bees.

In general, according to Arnold Butov, the level of training of specialists has noticeably decreased. If earlier there were plant protection agronomists, now no one needs such specialized specialists. Universities breed amateurs. What can we expect from such specialists? Here bees, as the most sensitive link in this chain, reacted with a massive pestilence.

The current ecological situation, uncontrolled and illiterate use of pesticides has led to an imbalance in the world of insects. For example, due to the anthropogenic factor, the population of the ladybug has sharply decreased, which led to the dominance of aphids in the fields and gardens.

According to Victoria Meshcheryakova, Deputy Director of Bio Bi Rus, which specializes in bumblebee breeding for greenhouse farms, there was no culture of using pesticides in greenhouse farms before. On the one hand, greenhouses were ripe to use natural plant pollinators, such as bumblebees, but on the other, they continued to use massively toxic chemicals harmful to insects. Now the situation has improved markedly, but insects can grab pesticides from the external environment.

Interestingly, Bio Bi rus is a division of an Israeli company. It turns out that they understand the importance of the existence of natural pollinators of plants, such as bumblebees, bees, and artificially multiply them, earning money on this, and many of our agricultural producers ruin what they are given as a gift by our beekeepers.

If earlier farmers even paid beekeepers to put hives near their fields, now only a few do it. With such short-sightedness, our agricultural producers may miss millions of tons of crops, even if all the fields are flooded with chemicals

What can be done to stop the mass death of bees? All my interlocutors are convinced that it is necessary to tighten control over the use of pesticides in the fields. And there are many complaints about the beekeepers themselves. Many of them do not want to notify local authorities and farm management about their location. Who then to complain about?

In a word, it is necessary to put things in order in the relationship between farmers and beekeepers, if we want the population of bees not to disappear from the face of the earth. Otherwise, we will face a global catastrophe.