Flying doctors for a better quality in fruit production

Abstract

With the global decline of wild pollinators, supplemental pollination is implemented frequently in agricultural practices. Honeybees, however, show little attraction towards low-rewarding crops such as pear or kiwi. As a result, many growers trust on mechanical application of pollen, which require a big amount of product and does not ensure a continuous vectoring of pollen that would match the receptive phase of the flowers. The entomovector technology utilizes insects as vectors of either biological control agents for targeted precision biocontrol towards plant pests and diseases or pollen for outcrossed pollination. In this chapter, we will describe two practical cases of the use of commercial bumblebee hives equipped with the patented dispenser “Flying doctor” for outdoor crops. The first involves open field studies conducted in France with kiwi vines where male pollen was dispensed, and the second focuses in pear orchard in Belgium where the Flying Doctor technology is compared to the use of regular bumblebee hives and default pollination practices such as the use of phytohormones and wild pollinators. Our results unambiguously show the advantages of entomovector technology compared to current pollination practices at both crops. The use of the Flying Doctors technology gave the best results in terms of fruit weight and size and number of fruits of high market value, while reducing overall pollen use compared to mechanical blowing of the pollen.