Knowledge Management Portal

For which crops are bumblebees or mason bees effective? What do these wild pollinators need for nesting to build a strong future generation? How can farmers enhance their fields to sustain wild pollinators? These and other questions are tackled in the new brochures. The Arabic brochures use the Arabic names of species to make it easier for farmers.

Adopting alternative agricultural practices can be a way to make farming in the country sustainable.

With more than 3 billion people affected, land degradation is one of the world’s biggest environmental problems. In Uzbekistan, where agriculture is an important source of income for rural population, land degradation poses substantial threats for sustainable development, causing declines in crop yields and livestock productivity.

Currently, many farmers use too many chemicals and field practices causing decline of pollinators. As the example of Europe shows, paying farmers to seed wildflower-strips does not even slow down the decline of pollinators. It is more important to talk with farmers, assess, if their knowledge on pollination and pollinators is sufficient e.g., to recognize if an insect is a pest or a wild pollinator or a natural enemy. Farmers cannot protect what they do not recognize.

Today, I join ICARDA to support the Conservation of Pollinator Diversity for Enhanced Climate Change Resilience project. Since 2011, I have been working with the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation (Xerces) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) supporting pollinator and other agriculturally beneficial insect conservation as senior pollinator conservation specialist for the southeastern U.S. At ICARDA, using the Farming with Alternative Pollinators (FAP) approach, I will work on pollinator related ecotourism, protection of ground-nesting pollinators, and provide support for national strategies and action plans for pollinator protection.

Caritas Switzerland, with financial contribution from the Principality of Liechtenstein, has facilitated the subtitling of the film to Tajik and Russian to make it accessible to farmers, extension experts, NARS and policymakers in Tajikistan. Caritas Switzerland is also promoting the film within ongoing discussions related to the need for a national strategy on pollinators in Tajikistan, as well as to better integrate pollinator protection into country programs.