Charter to help bees and pollination services

A pollination services charter that aims to protect bees from harmful pesticide misuse was launched at Nampo 2017, in Bothaville, Free State.

Charter to help bees and pollination services
- Advertisement -

Dirk Uys, marketing manager for Southern Africa at Bayer, said the crop protection industry had to mitigate bee loss.

“There needs to be co-operation between all role-players, especially crop producers who need to tell bee farmers when they want to apply pesticides,” Uys said.

According to the charter, the crop protection agencies would recommend pesticides within an integrated pest management programme and ensure that dust minimising measures from treated seed were introduced according to CropLife and SANSOR guidelines.

- Advertisement -

Crop growers should use registered products, avoid spraying when bees were foraging and apply after dusk.

The charter was supported by Bayer Crop Sciences, Grain SA, the South African Bee Industry Organisation (SABIO), Agri SA, Subtrop, Crop Life SA, the Citrus Research Institute, Hortgro and the South African National Seed Organisation (SANSOR).

Previous articleCall for a fresh approach to assisting emerging farmers
Next articleKZN conservationists reeling after nine rhino poached
Gerhard Uys grew up as a real city lad, but spends his free time hiking and visiting family farms. He learnt the journalism trade as a freelance writer and photographer in the lifestyle industry, but having decided that he will be a cattle farmer by the age of 45 he now indulges his passion for farming by writing about agriculture. He feels Farmer’s Weekly is a platform for both developed and emerging farmers to learn additional farming skills and therefore takes the job of relaying practical information seriously.