Press article - Protecting farmland pollinators

Pollinators are essential for farmers growing insect-pollinated crops, fruits and vegetables. However, there are many factors, including intensive specialised agriculture, which have led to a wide-scale loss of wild pollinators on farmland over the last fifty years. In Ireland, one-third of their bee species are threatened with extinction (All Ireland Pollinator Plan). Improving agricultural systems to reverse the degradation of ecosystems would create significant and sustainable economic value and improvements to the health of the environment.

Saorla Kavanagh - The National Biodiversity Data Centre, Operational Group project manager explains “Pollinators are basically a proxy for biodiversity. If you help pollinators, it will have knock-on effects and you’ll help biodiversity.” They created a scoring system which would help farmers to understand how pollinator-friendly or not their farm currently is, and to identify the type of simple, low-cost management practices they could take to improve their score. Saorla says “It is not about making huge changes, but integrating small actions that will allow biodiversity to coexist within an already productive farming system.”

The Operational Group is working with 40 farmers, Saorla continues “What’s really useful within this project is that we’ve got a huge range of farms involved, beef, dairy, tillage and mixed with different farming intensities.” They have been examining the impact of pollinator measures on broader biodiversity as well as looking into their costeffectiveness in the Irish farmed landscape.

The farmers chose the actions to take on their farm. One arable farmer, for example, planted grass margins at the start of the project, and has noticed a great increase in biodiversity, most plants now are ones that he did not sow initially. Another tillage farmer has created a wildlife area where he planted many different species of trees as well as allowing a natural meadow to grow. He has seen a visible increase in moths, bees and other wildlife. Many of the farmers have also expressed that the increase in biodiversity has had an effect on their own well-being, that it creates a more calming working environment. Protecting farmland pollinators Irish Operational Group promotes actions to support biodiversity within productive farming system Throughout the project, the partners monitored all the participating farms, scoring them annually and providing regular advice to farmers. Over 3 years, 31 farmers have made changes and increased their pollinator points.

In 2023, a guidance document on how to take action to protect pollinators on the farm will be produced. This document will contain evidence-based action sheets. It will provide real examples on how best to provide food, safety, and shelter for pollinators and wider biodiversity on the farm.