Over two billion people in developing countries are smallholder farmers and often depend on pollinators, according to this report by the UK Collaborative on Development Sciences. The report finds that insufficient pollination has already been found across many crops in the developing world, which could negatively affect cash crops (such as coffee and cocoa) and intake of nutritious foods such as fruit and nuts. The report points to a lack of data on pollinators in developing countries, and calls for further research, education programmes and sustainable development projects incorporating bee-keeping.
Find the full report here and a blog post about the report here. The report author, Thomas Timberlake, has also recorded a 20 minute podcast explaining many of the key points from the report. You can find the podcast here.
See also the Foodsource resource Impacts of climatic and environmental change on food systems.
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