If Bees Disappear From The Face Of The Earth, Then Humanity Will Exist For 4 Years - Alternative View

If Bees Disappear From The Face Of The Earth, Then Humanity Will Exist For 4 Years - Alternative View
If Bees Disappear From The Face Of The Earth, Then Humanity Will Exist For 4 Years - Alternative View

Video: If Bees Disappear From The Face Of The Earth, Then Humanity Will Exist For 4 Years - Alternative View

Video: If Bees Disappear From The Face Of The Earth, Then Humanity Will Exist For 4 Years - Alternative View
Video: What Happens If All The Bees Die? 2024, September
Anonim

From different regions of Russia, there are reports of mass death of beneficial insects.

Tatarstan, Mordovia, Moscow, Ryazan, Saratov, Lipetsk, Voronezh, Smolensk, Rostov Regions, Krasnodar, Stavropol Territories … How true are the media reports and what is the reason for the mass death of bees?

According to the president of the Russian Union of Beekeepers Arnold Butov, the media, as often happens, exaggerate the scale of the disaster. For example, in the Stavropol and Krasnodar Territories, cases of mass death of bees were not recorded at all, in general, the problem exists and can turn into a real disaster not only for beekeepers, but, in general, for humanity. It is not for nothing that Einstein is credited with the following statement: "If bees disappear from the face of the earth, then humanity will exist for four years." Whether the great scientist said it or not is not known for certain, but the fact that bees play a huge role in the ecological system and without them most plants will die, then the same fate will befall the animals that feed on them, well, and then it will come to humans - that's for sure.

Such a huge amount will come over because of the lack of harvest of almost all agricultural crops. So bee death is not just an industry problem.

Indeed, according to the Ministry of Agriculture of the Stavropol Territory, no mass death of bees was recorded in the region. This is all that the department managed to find out. They did not want to express themselves more substantively.

The Krasnodar Ministry of Agriculture was more detailed. The department reported that the mass death of bees in the region has not been registered, this year the number of apiaries has even increased and amounts to 790. “Planned antiepizootic measures are regularly carried out at the apiaries registered with the State Veterinary Service of the region. In order to prevent the death of bees, the ministry sent recommendations to the municipal authorities of the agro-industrial complex on the need to conduct explanatory work with agricultural producers. Explain to them the importance of complying with the requirements of the Sanitary Rules and Norms SanPiN 1.2.2584-10 "Hygienic requirements for the safety of testing, storage, transportation, sale, use, neutralization and disposal of pesticides and agrochemicals" during agricultural work,and also to organize work on the obligatory notification of apiary owners about the need to exclude the departure of bees before treating crops with pesticides."

Agrarian officials made it clear that they consider the human factor to be one of the main reasons for the mass death of bees. In the same Stavropol Territory, according to the head of the public organization "Pchelovod" Viktor Polukhin, ten years ago in the area of the village of Privolnoye, a case of mass death of bees was recorded after the processing of fields by aircraft. The beekeepers were not even warned about this.

“In the days of the planned economy, the rule to inform beekeepers about the upcoming chemical treatments of fields and orchards was strictly followed,” says Arnold Butov, President of the Russian Union of Beekeepers. “Now, when there are many private owners, it is almost impossible to control this element. Moreover, after the Rosselkhoznadzor in this part of the control functions were taken away, having transferred to Rospotrebnadzor, and his hands do not reach us, beekeepers.

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Yes, Rospotrebnadzor does not have the authority to somehow influence the situation, it can only record the facts of violations of the law. According to Butov, the Russian Ministry of Agriculture has already matured a decision to return control over the use of pesticides and other chemicals to the Rosselkhoznadzor. If this happens, the situation may change for the better. In the meantime, everything is at the mercy of agricultural producers. Some are ready to comply with the law, others are not interested in anything other than their own profits.

An experienced Stavropol beekeeper Lev Novopashin this year for the first time was forced to leave his equipped apiary in the vicinity of the village of Ladovskaya Balka, Krasnogvardeisky district and move to the neighboring Novoaleksandrovsky urban district, closer to the borders of the Krasnodar Territory, since in the sunflower fields from which his bees take the main chemical treatments will be carried out. Beekeepers were warned about this in advance.

Five years ago, according to Novopashin, there was no mass processing of sunflower with pesticides at all. It's just that in Russia there was no such technique capable of spraying tall crops. Progress is relentless, new technology has come to the fields of sunflower. And this is the main honey plant in the South of Russia. Now the beekeeper Novopashin has a nomadic life. It's good that they warn you so far.

In recent years, rapeseed areas have grown significantly. This industrial crop is in great demand in foreign markets, its profitability is almost two times higher than that of wheat, the main crop of southern Russia, which led to an increase in acreage. Rape, by the way, is a good honey plant, it can become, along with sunflower, the main source of honey in the region. But the technology of its cultivation provides for the significant use of pesticides. It is in rapeseed fields that cases of mass poisoning of bees have been recorded.

According to Butov, the pesticide market is developing at a rapid pace. On the one hand, this brings huge profits to chemical companies, on the other hand, agricultural producers, striving to increase crop yields, that is, to the same profit, are themselves ready to pour any filth on the fields, just to ensure the growth of the profitability of their business. Nobody thinks about such "trifles" as bees. There are already such sunflower hybrids, for example, which do not need pollination. Why then bees? - think careless farmers.

Some farmers in the West reject them, realizing that they destroy everything: both harmful and useful. Our agricultural producers are far from such environmental awareness.

Recently, I attended a Field Day at one of the farms in the Stavropol Territory. There, a number of international companies displayed their seed and crop protection products. The insecticide coragen, which is safe for bees, was also introduced. But, according to a representative of the developer company, many agricultural producers prefer cheaper generic counterparts to him, which do not differ in tolerance to bees.

In general, according to Arnold Butov, the level of training of specialists has noticeably decreased. If earlier there were agronomists for plant protection, now no one needs such specialized specialists. Universities breed amateurs. What can we expect from such specialists? The bees, as the most sensitive link in this chain, reacted with a massive plague.

The current ecological situation, uncontrolled and illiterate use of pesticides has led to an imbalance in the world of insects. For example, due to the anthropogenic factor, the population of the ladybug has sharply decreased, which led to the dominance of aphids in the fields and gardens.

According to Victoria Meshcheryakova, Deputy Director of Bio Bi Rus, which specializes in bumblebee breeding for greenhouse farms, there was no culture of using pesticides in greenhouse farms before. On the one hand, greenhouses were ripe to use natural plant pollinators, such as bumblebees, but on the other, they continued to use massively pesticides harmful to insects. Now the situation has improved markedly, but insects can grab pesticides from the external environment.

It is interesting that Bio Bi rus is a division of an Israeli company. It turns out that they understand the importance of the existence of natural pollinators of plants, such as bumblebees, bees, and artificially multiply them, earning money on this, and many of our agricultural producers ruin what they are given as a gift by our beekeepers.

What can be done to stop the mass death of bees? All my interlocutors are convinced that it is necessary to tighten control over the use of pesticides in the fields. And there are many complaints about the beekeepers themselves. Many of them do not want to notify local authorities and farm management about their location. Who then to complain about?

In a word, it is necessary to restore order in the relationship between farmers and beekeepers, if we want the population of bees not to disappear from the face of the earth. Otherwise, we will face a global catastrophe.

Sergey Ivaschenko