Rabiul Islam :
The population of our country is increasing day by day. As a result the demand of the food and other related aspects are also increasing rapidly. To mitigate these problems in future, we have to produce more foods in a sustainable way with our limited cultivable land area. Improved pollination services by the insects may be the best way to serve the purpose of food safety with a great extent. Pollination is a process by which transfer of pollen from one to another happened in the stigma (where pollen deposit by pollinators for fertilization). This pollination process can happen by abiotic pollinating agents like water or wind and biotic pollination agents like insects, birds, bats etc. Many agricultural crops like maize, rice and their pollen can transfer from one stigma to anther by abiotic pollinating agents. Biotic pollination happens when insects/animals visit flowers to gather their food (nectar and or pollen) and incidentally pollinate them by transferring pollen grains from one flower to another of the same or another plant of the same crop or plant species. Thus there is a strong relationship between pollinators and plant of the flowers they pollinated. Research showed that of the 115 leading global crops consumed by human, about 87 depend on animal pollination. On the other hand 35 percent of the crops we consume, in terms of the volume produced globally, depend on animal pollination. Research showed that the value of global crop production, with an annual market value of 235 billion to 577 billion US dollars, is directly attributed to animal pollination. In every cropping season different species of honeybees, wild bees and flies pollinate 48 crops of the world’s most valuable commodities, contributing significantly to the global economy. For example, in the USA alone, pollination results in USD 16 billion annually with USD 12 billion attributable solely to the accessibility of honeybees. Insect pollinators increase not only crop yield but also quality of many crops around the world. These include oilseed crops, vegetables, pulses, fruit crops, nuts etc. On the other hand insect pollinators play an important role to keep biodiversity well by providing great pollination services. Plants serve as the foundations of our ecosystems, and over 80% of flowering plants require pollination services. Moreover, there are some self-pollinated crops (pea, sesame etc.) but if insect pollinators present there, they give higher yield.
Unfortunately there is a little knowledge about insect pollination and its contribution to the crops in Bangladesh yet. So the importance of pollinators to the agricultural sector in our country is very imperative. We should increase our knowledge about the kind of pollinator species which are suitable for crops. We should, therefore, inaugurate the best way to safeguard and increase both wild and managed pollinators in sustainable way.
(Rabiul Islam is Senior Scientific Officer (Entomology), Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute).
