The Cherry on Top? Flies as Alternative Crop Pollinators

Everyone loves the bumble bees and the honey bees. They’re essential farm livestock – call them key workers if you like! They play a critical role in our farm to fork supply chain. Pollinator dependent crops make up more than 50% of global food products traded today, and without them there’d be far fewer fruit and veg available. But they are not our only key pollinators. Hoverflies are excellent pollinators too. They’re ubiquitous and they don’t sting. We are researching how to produce them commercially. Thereby ensuring we can keep on supplying good quality fruit for years to come. We’re taking steps towards understanding how to use them in different pollination systems. And even how they fit in with the bigger picture, conserving wildlife on farms. We’re not trying to replace the bees. But we must reduce our reliance on just one or two species of bee to meet our ever-demanding pollination requirements. This is the future of farming, using alternative technologies to increase yields and reduce crop loss.