Bees receive ￡1 million funding boost

Bee numbers have fallen by 10-15 per cent over the past two years, according to Defra, and by 30 per cent according to the British Beekeepers Association.

The BBKA says the cost to agriculture is huge given bees contribute £165 million to the agricultural economy every year through honey production and their pollination of plants and crops.

Scientists at the Rothemstead Research centre in Hertfordshire and Warwick University will be funded by the Government’s Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), in partnership with biotech giant Syngenta, to investigate the factors causing the decline.

Lead researcher, Dr Juliet Osborne said: “Bees living on agricultural landscapes have a lot to deal with. They must respond to sudden changes in availability of food – pollen and nectar – whist dealing with a variety of diseases, parasites and other stresses.

This project will provide us with a unique insight into how disease and food supply affect the survival of bees in farmed landscapes.”

The ultimate aim of the project is to build a model to understand how bees may respond to diseases in a changing farmed landscape.

Dr Peter Campbell from Syngenta said: “A main outcome of the project will be a predictive tool that can help beekeepers, farmers and other landscape managers to improve honeybee health.”