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Vol. 10, Special Issue 7 (2021)

Strategies to combat the decline in pollinator’s population

Author(s):
Sapna Devi, Diksha Devi, Swaraj Jit Singh and Babita Kaushal
Abstract:
Pollinators are preferred to be the key component of global biodiversity, providing vital ecosystem services to agricultural crops as well as wild plants. But during the recent years, there has been reported a huge global decline in both wild and domesticated pollinators. This decline has commercially threatened agriculturally economic crops due to the fact that 75% of the crop’s production totally relies on insect pollination. Previous reports have shown that 71% of the pollinator species have decreased and 3.4% became extinct over the past 20 years. Declines in pollinator species is driven primarily by habitat loss and declines in floral abundance as well as diversity, resulting from agricultural intensification. There are some other reasons including GM crops, pesticides and climate change etc. that may also cause loss of pollinator’s diversity. Pesticide use is also a major cause of decline in pollinator’s population. The EU decided to ban three neonicotinoids viz., clothianidin, imadaclorpid and thiamethoxam, that were blamed for killing the bees. A catastrophic decline in insect pollinators is probably attributable to the accidental introduction of invasive species which results in global decline in pollinators. So keeping in view the importance of pollinators, steps must be taken to prevent their further decline. Protecting, restoring, enhancing or creating new habitat is the best way to conserve the pollinator’s population. Judicious use of pesticides is also an important tool to conserve the pollinators by using minimal use of insecticides, avoid spraying during bloom, and switch to more pollinator-friendly pesticides. Providing artificial nests for pollinators and encouraging flowering plants to provide blooms through-out their growing season, also became an alternate option to enhance their population. Suggested measures include the use of environmentally comparable schemes to enhance floristic diversity in agricultural landscapes. The national wildlife federation calling for the Environmental Protection Agency to suspend uses of neonics until further research shows there is no unacceptable harm to native bees, monarch butterflies and other pollinators. In the present review, different strategies have been discussed that can be further used to combat pesticide population.
Pages: 727-737  |  345 Views  119 Downloads
How to cite this article:
Sapna Devi, Diksha Devi, Swaraj Jit Singh and Babita Kaushal. Strategies to combat the decline in pollinator’s population. The Pharma Innovation Journal. 2021; 10(7S): 727-737.

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