Modern farming techniques, especially the heavy use of pesticides, have been receiving a lot of criticism lately. With concern over increasingly pesticide-resistant plants and the environmental impact of commercial farming,
Modern Farmer reports of a Finnish agricultural zoology professor has come up with a technique that appears to be more eco-friendly. The idea comes from Heikki M.T. Hokkanen, who has been testing the new technique since 2006. Rather than haphazardly spraying whole fields with fungicides, the idea is to use nature to deliver the cure directly to flowers, via bees.
The practice uses bees as
"doctors". Hokkanen created a tray, containing a powdered, safe bio-control fungicide, that attaches to a beehive, where the bees exit. This way, as the bees leave the hive, they are dusted with fungicide, which they then deliver directly to flowering plants, such as strawberry and citrus trees. The fungicide, called Prestop-Mix, has been approved by the EU for use in organic farming. The bees are only dusted when exiting the hive, a separate entrance contains no fungicide, so they do not track it back into the colony.
The practice is starting to gain traction in Europe and Australia, though the fungicides used are thus far unapproved for use in the United States. The Finnish Government is even offering subsidies to farmers who switch to bee doctoring, from other pest control methods. In addition to the environmental benefits of using less fungicide, the process is, according to Hokkanen, much less expensive (one third the cost) of conventional methods.
What do you think? Is "bee doctoring" the next step in environmentally conscious agriculture? Let us know your thoughts via Facebook, Google+ and Twitter. Be sure to check out the source link below for more information.
Source:
Modern Farmer
Image Credit (Flickr)
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