Abstract
The integration of managed pollinators into agricultural systems represents a practical strategy for boosting crop production, optimising sustainable farming practices, and improving rural livelihoods. However, the use of managed bees to supplement the contribution of wild pollinators still faces challenges, such as over-reliance on pesticides in intensively managed agroecosystems. Here, we placed managed bee colonies on conventional farms to assess their impact on arabica coffee yield, quality and market value, while also to evaluate colony health in coffee fields treated with field rates of thiamethoxam-based products. We show that supplementing farms with managed bees increased farmer income by enhancing coffee yield and beverage quality, which is rewarded by specialty coffee markets. Moreover, our field-based study reveals that, even when exposed to field-realistic levels of the neonicotinoid thiamethoxam, managed bee colonies exhibited no significant adverse effects on their health within coffee fields. Our results underline that pollination is a key input on intensively managed coffee farms, and that agricultural production and environmental conservation interact synergically to maximize profitability, which is fundamental to encourage farmers to be good stewards of their croplands by adopting nature-positive practices.
Competing Interest Statement
The authors declare the following competing interests: D.M.O. and J.M.V.A.D. work for AgroBee Pollination and Sustainability Solutions Startup; A.A.B. and G.J.G.S. are co-founders of AgroBee Pollination and Sustainability Solutions Startup; G.S.S., T.S.O.K., A.P.C., H.T., N.B.T.V., and R.C. work for Syngenta, who manufacture and market crop protection products containing thiamethoxam. A.M.P. works for Eurofins Agroscience Services, a contract research organization, who performed thiamethoxam and clothianidin residue analyses. All other authors declare no competing interests.
Data availability
Data are available at Zenodo: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10975249
