Renting bees to pollinate his farm has seen an avocado farmer more than double his harvests.
Michael Ngare, a hass avocado export farmer in Kajiado has seen his harvest per tree increase from 300 fruits to 450-675 fruits per tree. “The weight of the fruits has also increased: previously, four to five avocados would reach a kilo, now it takes just three,” he said.
Open bee pollination leads to more flowers that graduate to young fruits and yield more. It also increases the size of avocado fruits by 18 per cent. Kenya’s smallholder avocado farmers have a pollination shortfall of 20.7 per cent. This, researchers advise, can be corrected by keeping honey bees on their farms.
Michael hires the bees from Pollen Patrollers right when his 500 avocado trees begin to flower for Sh3,000-3,500 three times a year. With his production up more than 50 per cent which sees him harvest more than 1,100 kilos of avocados sold for Sh20 a kilo, he contends that the investment is well worth it.
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According to the company’s CEO Margaret Wanjiku, her bees have been put to work pollinating more than 2,000 farms across Kenya. These are mostly avocado and mango farms mainly in Kajiado, Kitui, Makueni, and Juja.
“For avocado farmers, for example, the bees stay on their farm for up to three months until they ensure all the flowers have been pollinated,” she said.
89.5 per cent of Kenyan avocadoes are insect-pollinated. Most of this pollination is done by honey bees. Other insects such as the tropical African latrine blowfly, drone fly, and polistine wasps also contributed. This presents a major pollination issue for farmers like Ngarewho lives in an area where there are no beehives.
Margaret and her team first set up six beehives on his five-acre avocado farm. These hives are monitored remotely with the help of a beehive sensor that ensures the bee colony is healthy. They also visit his farm about twice every month to ensure that the bees are working to pollinate every avocado.
Once the flowers have been pollinated they start turning into fruits at which time the bees do not have any flower nectar to feed on. Most of them will retreat back into their hives and begin feeding on the honey they have made. At this time, Pollen Patrollers come back to the farms and pick the remaining bees.
Wanjiku mentioned that more than 70 per cent of the bees often die by the time their work is through. This is because of their short three-month lifespan and as a result of their being moved.
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In the United States, the bee rental business is big business and has overtaken honey sales as the main source of income for beekeepers. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, in 2016, 41 per cent of the revenue gotten from bees was providing pollination services to the growing number of almond farms in the country as well as increasing melon, orchard crops, alfalfa, and vegetable yields.