The absence of pollinators could reduce food production in Mexico, such as beans, chili, apples, guava, coffee, cocoa, tequila or mezcal.
The world goes through a pollination crisis that endangers the production of food such as beans, chili, tomato, pumpkin, plum, mango, apple, guava, vanilla, coffee, cocoa, tequila or mezcal.
The absence of pollinators could reduce production, César Domínguez Pérez-Tejada, general director of Popularization of Science (DGDC) of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), said in a statement.
In Mexico, it is estimated that more than five million hectares of agricultural crops depend on biotic pollination and its value could amount to 63 million pesos.
In the country there are 316 species of cultivated plants, of which 236 are used in human food and the rest in the medicinal industry, ornamental, textile or livestock feed.
“Pollination is the result of millions of years of evolution and is related to diversity and its adaptations: at least 300 thousand species of flowering plants (angiosperms) and the extravagant variety of shapes, colors and fragrances of them,” he said. César Domínguez -in the opening ceremony of the temporary exhibition “Invisible Links. Pollinators and biodiversity “ , in the Universum, Museum of Sciences .
According to data disseminated by UNAM, it is estimated that 80% of wild plants and about 70% of crops for human consumption depend on pollination for the production of seeds and fruits.
The annual economic value of pollination in the world is 217 billion dollars.
“There is no doubt that insects, and inside them bees and bumblebees, are the most important,” says Domínguez Pérez-Tejada.
“Plants find elaborate ways to mate, why? Because they can not move, unlike most animals. They are destined to live all their lives in the place where they were born and germinated, in such a way that they are unable to move their gametes by themselves, which is why they require pollinators, “he explained.
Among the pollinators are marsupials, flies, beetles, butterflies, wasps, ants, reptiles, birds and bats, to name a few.
The existence of fewer wild flowers reduces the options for bees to choose a balanced diet and suffer cognitively from the lack of omega-3 acids, which has brought about their death, revealed last year the Benjamin Triwaks Bees Research Center .
Source: altonivel
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