Sir, Your correspondent from Croplife International, in Brussels, (letters, Mar 12) rightly highlighted the contribution that plant science can make to food and biofuel production. It would be wrong not to mention also the importance of insect pollination and in particular the role of honey bees in enhancing output of a wide range of crops.

Recent research showed that honey bees were responsible for up to 90 per cent of the pollination of certain crops, particularly top-fruit such as apples. Their role in the pollination of these crops is vital, given that they are essentially the only pollinators around in numbers, early in the year, having over-wintered in their colonies. Even the more modest contribution to efficiency that honey bees can achieve with, for example, oil seed rape nevertheless improves output or can enable smaller land areas to be employed.

It is accepted by the Government that honey bees contribute about £165 million per annum to agricultural output, for which beekeepers are not paid.

It is to be regretted that at present Defra is unwilling to find the modest funding needed to increase research into honey bee health, which is urgently needed, to enable us to meet the growing list of threats to bee health, their ultimate survival and contribution to agriculture and the environment.

Tim Lovett
President, British Bee Keepers Association

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