PILOT 5.3 Pollination Optimisation in Apiculture
CHALLENGE
Honeybees, mainly Apis mellifera, remain the most economically valuable pollinators of crop monocultures worldwide. Yields of some fruit, seed and nut crops decrease by more than 90% without these pollinators (Klein, 2007). Thus, pollination is the highest agriculture contributor to yields worldwide, contributing far beyond any other management practice (Why bees matter, FAO, 2018). The challenge is to protect the honeybee to ensure pollination services for crop production. However, there is a lack of detailed information regarding the field saturation of pollinators and a lack of integrated control on pollination.
AIM
This pilot aims to develop and provide a service for pollination optimisation. The service will connect farm management systems and apiary management systems with advisory and decision support services. The goal of the integration of different agriculture systems is to enable better communication between farmers and beekeepers, to protect bees and to optimise pollination of crops with the aim of improving their yields.
HOW
In this pilot, the eDWIN1 Virtual Farm is connected with the apiary management system, ControlBee, to manage beekeeping information, including apiaries and farming activities like planned sprayings (based on the information from farmers). Existing systems will be improved with new functionality, enabling collaboration without needing to use a new system. Moreover, as part of the project, existing sensors will be improved, and new apiary sensors are developed to allow remote monitoring of mobile apiaries.
BENEFIT
Benefits will include improved yield and quality of crops for farmers and better gains for beekeepers. It will also deliver better control and management of pollinators and result in better communication between farmers and beekeepers (e.g. notification of the start of flowering of plants). Using DEMETER enhanced services will enable easy integration of the apiary management system with multiple and potentially different farm management systems.
1 eDWIN is a nation-wide farm management IT system for plant protection, being developed as part of a national project in Poland.
SUPPLY CHAIN
FOCUS: Full supply chain, Interoperability.
LOCATION
Poland
PARTNERS
Pilot projects run under pilot cluster five:
Pilot 5.1 - Disease prediction and supply chain transparency for orchards/vineyards
Disease prediction and supply chain transparency for orchards/vineyards
Pest and disease appearance as well as their spread is one of the main problems in fruit and grape production. Disease control is usually based on experience instead of hard facts, although prediction models are available.
Pilot 5.2 - Farm of Things in Extensive Cattle Holdings
Farm of Things in Extensive Cattle Holdings
Current production environments for dairy and related products suffer from problems in relation to the lack of information from farms about animal well-being, crop and soil properties, inaccuracy of animal details such as animal identification and lack of transparent production processes.
Pilot 5.3 - Pollination Optimisation in Apiculture
Pollination Optimisation in Apiculture
Honeybees, mainly Apis mellifera, remain the most economically valuable pollinators of crop monocultures worldwide. Yields of some fruit, seed and nut crops decrease by more than 90% without these pollinators (Klein, 2007).
Pilot 5.4 - Transparent Supply Chain in the Poultry Industry
Transparent Supply Chain in the Poultry Industry
The supply chain in the poultry industry is well developed with several stakeholders involved. However, there is a lack of information about chicken wellbeing, medical treatment, feeding patterns etc.
