The Effect of Honey-Bees on Coffee Crops in Karnataka

The Rainforest Retreat today hosted a presentation for 20 local farmers on the effects of maintaining a honey-bee population on coffee farms. The presentation was made in conjunction with the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Envioronment (A-Tree) educated farmers on the increase in crop yield that honey bees can stimulate.
As an organization, A-Tree does not suggest that organic practices are the solution for all farmers. Instead it advocates for a best-practice method involving a high density of native shade trees, low chemical inputs, and a high usage of farmyard manure. By following these methods, honey bee populations survive and help farmers by naturally pollinating their coffee flowers.
In North America, the practice of “mobile pollination” has recently become much more prevalent. Mobile pollination involves the transport of huge numbers of bees in trucks that are released for a short period of time during pollination season. This practice is not only undesirable for a farm like the Mojo Plantation, where introducing a mono-culture of any species would be devastation, but is not practical for a heavy-rainfall region like Coorg. In spite of having nearly 3500mm of rain annually, many of the major crops flower during the rainy season and bees would not leave their boxes during a rainfall.
Therefore, the best-practice model that A-Tree advocates would simply generate larger populations of bees naturally. By substituting chemical use for manure use, Coorg’s farmers could prevent the wipe-out of useful pollinator populations through indiscriminate spraying. And as a region, Coorg is already an ideal habitat for bee populations because of the thick canopy of native trees that cover the hills.
While the presentation seemed to be advocating a fairly straightforward procedure that would drastically reduce the external input costs for farmers, many of those in attendance seemed unconvinced. Coorg’s farmers have seen the worldwide reduction in honey-bees firsthand, and many indicated that they had noticed no decrease in their yield in the last five years. The best-practice model however was widely accepted as being desirable as it limited expensive external inputs. Many of the farmers had already begun to decrease their reliance on commercially-marketed chemicals by increasing their manure use and agreed that their annual yield had not significantly decreased.
Aranin Chakdavarath, the student responsible for the presentation, defended his research but moved more towards the subject of how to popularize this best-practice system. As only 3% of farmers in Coorg own more than one hectare, it was generally agreed that some form of local body was require to form a co-operative among local farmers. Small farmers have little financial incentive to pursue these best-practice methods as they cannot afford to market their production practices and receive any premium price. Until a premium price was attached to coffee grown using the best-practice method, farmers would continue to farm either using chemicals or organically with little consideration for other methods.
Ultimately the A-Tree meeting provided the small farmers of Coorg with an opportunity to meet and discuss the issues that the all share. The likelihood of any concrete action being taken to increase the bee population in the area seems slim. Many of the farmers did however express their intention to avoid removing bee hives on their properties temporarily.