A review on: Importance of pollinators in fruit and vegetable production and their collateral jeopardy from agro-chemicals
Arindam Das, Sayan Sau, Manas Kumar Pandit and Koushik Saha
A pollinator is the biotic agent, animals or vector that moves pollen from anthers to stigma of a flower. Insects and other animal pollinators are vital for the production of healthy crops for food, fibers, edible oils, medicines, and other products. It is estimated that more than 1,300 types of plants are cultivated around the world for food, beverages, medicines, condiments, spices and even fabric. Out of these, almost 75% are pollinated by animals. In fact, pollinators such as bees, birds and bats affect 35 percent of the world’s crop production which increased outputs of 87 of the leading food crops worldwide and obviously within these, fruits and vegetables are the most benefited items. With highest efficacy of honeybees, approximately 100,000 different species of animals around the world act as pollinators to 250,000 plant species on the planet. But nowthe population of wild, native and managed pollinators is declining at an alarming rate owing to alterations in their food and nesting habitats, shrinkage in natural ecosystems, pesticide poisoning, alien species, diseases and pests, over-collecting, human activity, climate change, smuggling and trading of certain rare and endangered species. Therefore conservation of pollinators' habitats and implementation of agro-environmental practices to enhance wild plants resources and nesting sites for bees in agricultural landscapes are vitally important.
Arindam Das, Sayan Sau, Manas Kumar Pandit, Koushik Saha. A review on: Importance of pollinators in fruit and vegetable production and their collateral jeopardy from agro-chemicals. J Entomol Zool Stud 2018;6(4):1586-1591.