Economic value of pollination services of honeybee and solutions to conserve apiculture industry

Authors

Assistant Professor, Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agricultural Science, Urmia university, Urmia, Iran.

Abstract

Insects are the most important animal pollinator groups, with approximately 70% of angiosperm plants are pollinated by insects. Among the pollinating insects, bees are one of the most important and specialized groups. There are over 19500 valid species of bee on the planet described so far, though there are likely to be many more species that are to be described. The economic value of honeybees as honey producers plays a minor role compared to their economic value as crop pollinators.  In addition to crops pollination, honeybees are thought to pollinate around 80% of wild flora. Consequently, honeybees are considered the fourth most important agricultural livestock sector in several European countries. Therefore, in addition to honey production such as honey and  royal jelly, the value of honeybees as crop polliniators should be considered.  Bees are often considered keystone species in ecosystems, thus bee loss or decline can result in reduced fruit and seed-set in plants and can lead to disruption of plant-pollinator networks leading to possible extinction cascades. Therefore, it is very important to mankind that conserves honeybee because of employment and economic aspect and on the other hand for survey the ecosystem and agriculture industry in Iran.

Keywords