Impact of farm management practices and landscape composition on pollinator communities in mango orchards: a study from Southern Punjab, Pakistan

Abstract

Crop pollination by insects is an important ecological service that ensures food security by enhancing the quantity and quality of agricultural produce. Landscape composition and farm management practices affect the abundance and species richness of pollinators. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the impact of farm management practices and landscape composition on the pollinator communities in mango Mangifera indica orchards in southern Punjab, Pakistan. We assessed the pollinator communities visiting the mango flowers in 42 commercial orchards. Based on management practices, they were regarded as ‘high or low pollinator unfriendly’ under different landscape compositions. The results showed that higher species richness, overall abundance of pollinators and abundance of Hymenoptera and Diptera were associated with low pollinator unfriendly practices. The presence of a semi-natural landscape around orchards resulted in higher species richness, overall abundance of pollinators, abundance of Hymenoptera, Shanon-wiener diversity index and Simpson diversity index. The low pollinator unfriendly orchards showed significantly higher fruit sets compared to high unfriendly orchards. Our results suggest that there is a need to lessen the intensification of management practices and also to conserve the pollinator-friendly natural or semi-natural habitat around the orchards to maintain pollination services.