Assessing Wild Pollinators in Conventional Agriculture: A Case Study From Maine’s Blueberry Industry

Abstract

Increasing use of functional agrobiodiversity, organisms that help farmers, is crucial to improving resilience of conventional agriculture in industrial countries. Literature suggests acquiring local ecological knowledge on these species is a formidable barrier. The present study uses interview data to explore farmers’ acquisition of local ecological knowledge concerning wild bees, as well as farmers’ use and conservation of wild bees. Wild bees are important crop pollinators and an alternative or supplement to declining commercial honeybees. We found that high uncertainty over wild bees prompts risk aversion, slowing use and conservation. However, to acquire local ecological knowledge, farmers eschew time-consuming assessment and instead develop rules of thumb that mesh with and draw on their use of honeybees. These findings illustrate the complex way in which farmers adapt to the challenge of acquiring local ecological knowledge of functional agrobiodiversity in a conventional agricultural system.