Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Novais, Samuel M A
• Nunes, Cássio A
• Santos, Natália B
• D Amico, Ana R
• Fernandes, G Wilson
• Quesada, Maurício
• Braga, Rodrigo F
• Neves, Ana Carolina O
• Paiva, Samuel Rezende

Titel

Effects of a Possible Pollinator Crisis on Food Crop Production in Brazil

Ist Teil von

• PloS one, 2016-11, Vol.11 (11), p.e0167292-e0167292

Ort / Verlag

United States: Public Library of Science

Erscheinungsjahr

2016

Quelle

Free E-Journal (出版社公開部分のみ）

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Animal pollinators contribute to human food production and security thereby ensuring an important component of human well-being. The recent decline of these agents in Europe and North America has aroused the concern of a potential global pollinator crisis. In order to prioritize efforts for pollinator conservation, we evaluated the extent to which food production depends on animal pollinators in Brazil-one of the world's agriculture leaders-by comparing cultivated area, produced volume and yield value of major food crops that are pollinator dependent with those that are pollinator non-dependent. In addition, we valued the ecosystem service of pollination based on the degree of pollinator dependence of each crop and the consequence of a decline in food production to the Brazilian Gross Domestic Product and Brazilian food security. A total of 68% of the 53 major food crops in Brazil depend to some degree on animals for pollination. Pollinator non-dependent crops produce a greater volume of food, mainly because of the high production of sugarcane, but the cultivated area and monetary value of pollinator dependent crops are higher (59% of total cultivated area and 68% of monetary value). The loss of pollination services for 29 of the major food crops would reduce production by 16.55-51 million tons, which would amount to 4.86-14.56 billion dollars/year, and reduce the agricultural contribution to the Brazilian GDP by 6.46%- 19.36%. These impacts would be largely absorbed by family farmers, which represent 74.4% of the agricultural labor force in Brazil. The main effects of a pollinator crisis in Brazil would be felt by the poorer and more rural classes due to their lower income and direct or exclusive dependence on this ecosystem service.