Zimbabwe/How can protecting pollinators safeguard our global food system?
While climate change prompts scientists to warn of declining crop yields, farmers around the world are recognizing the importance of natural pollinators. Birds, bees, ladybugs, bats and other creatures are not only essential to food security, they are also vital to human survival. Without pollinators, entire ecosystems would collapse.
At first glance, something as tiny as a bumblebee may seem insignificant. And yet, of the nearly 1,400 crops grown around the world, almost 80% require pollination. These plants, which range from rapeseed to sunflower, produce more than half of the fats and oils consumed worldwide. Pollinators themselves vary considerably from region to region, and include over 20,000 species of bees, wasps, flies, moths, hummingbirds and many more. But many of these species are threatened by climate change and environmental destruction.
If natural pollinators ceased to exist, so would healthy, sustainable diets.
Pollinators hold the key to improving food security: in gardens, fields, farms and forests around the world, pollinators transport pollen to and from crops, disseminate seeds and accelerate plant growth. They also make for more abundant harvests and tastier fruit, helping families who depend on agriculture for their income or, in many cases, for their entire daily meals. When agriculture-dependent regions learn pollinator-friendly farming techniques, they can expand their gardens, increase their harvests and develop a reliable income.
Food security in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe's agricultural industry has been hard hit in recent years. In addition to recurrent droughts which have hampered agricultural production throughout the country, the natural growth of crops has been affected by artificial production methods and unsustainable land use, such as deforestation. Biodiversity has been rapidly reduced and natural pollinators are disappearing. Quick fixes to improve soil fertility and control pests and diseases harm farmers in the long term, as unnatural methods of promoting agricultural production lead to environmental destruction and food insecurity.
Pesticides, for example, cause crop prices to soar, due to the unnatural development of cultivation and the rising cost of mass production. Many families find themselves unable to meet these new costs. Those who can are affected by the chemical residues that often remain on the plant, often resulting in toxic contamination. Recent UNICEF data show that only 10% of children under the age of two benefit from an acceptable and adequate diet, and that almost a quarter of children in the developing world do not have access to safe drinking water.s of Zimbabwe's children are stunted, i.e. they are not developing normally due to undernutrition.
Emmanuel Sedeya, a septuagenarian from Gokwe South, Zimbabwe, is one of many farmers taking part in a pollination project launched by Action contre la Faim and implemented in partnership with Nutrition Action Zimbabwe, thanks to funding from the British government as part of the Darwin initiative. The project trains and helps small-scale farmers to test pollinator-friendly farming techniques and crop combinations to increase agricultural production.
"Before the project, I didn't want to see insects in my garden," explains Emmanuel. "I thought they would harm my crops by spreading disease. I used a chemical pesticide to kill all the insects I saw in my garden, because I didn't know they were beneficial. I thought that by using pesticides, I was trying to solve a problem, but I didn't know that I was actually creating one."
Emmanuel uses bees to produce honey, but he knew little about their impact on food crops. Throughout his training, he learned to identify the different pollinator species and recognize their essential functions: how they transfer pollen, attract other pollinators and promote crop growth. Before the project, pollinators were simply pests. Today, they symbolize the prospect of new life.
The training was just the beginning. Emmanuel also had to learn how to put his lessons into practice. He worked with other team members to measure small plots of land. Within these plots, he planted the desired crop - such as rapeseed, a plant commonly used in cooking oils - and surrounded it with pollinator-friendly species, ranging from green peppers to watermelons to cucumbers.
According to the 2023 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report, rural communities and women are most at risk of malnutrition. This is as true for Africa as it is for the rest of the world: women face a higher prevalence of moderate and severe food insecurity.
Action contre la Faim's farming with alternative pollinators project aimed to integrate gender equality, and the women of Gowke South were encouraged to participate. One of them, Christina Moyo, 35, now manages her own income and makes decisions that contribute to her family's security and well-being. Christina said she quickly learned that the pollinator plants surrounding the food crops were "magical".
"Some people in the community even thought the tomatoes might have come from Harare, because no one believed tomatoes of such quality came from Gokwe," she said. Harare being the capital of Zimbabwe, vegetables are generally grown on a commercial scale; in Gokwe South, however, farmers face a variety of production challenges, including limited access to water. Thanks to her new training, Christina now plans to surround her garden with these "magic crops" to increase her harvest.
"This project has transformed my life as a woman in so many ways," said Christina. "I'd like to start by saying that as a woman, it's my responsibility to feed the household. I have to make sure that the children are fed and that the family as a whole is fed. Thanks to this project, I was able to easily obtain vegetables to feed my family".
Today, Christina spends much of her day doing things she enjoys, rather than focusing solely on her family's survival.
Communities around the world, including those in Zimbabwe, are slowly becoming aware of the benefits of wild pollinators. But not fast enough. As environmental destruction intensifies and urbanization reaches new heights, we need to consider the direct links between wild pollinators and our global food system.
Source: www.actioncontrelafaim.org
