Global Pollinator Crisis and Its Impact on Crop Productivity and Sustenance of Plant Diversity

Abstract

Pollination is an essential requirement for fruit and seed set. It is, therefore, crucial for crop productivity and sustenance of flowering plant diversity in their natural habitats. Nearly 90% of flowering plants use a range of animals to achieve pollination. Human-induced environmental changes in recent decades have markedly reduced the diversity, density and distribution of pollinators around the world, resulting in global pollinator crisis. The crisis is also threatening the survival of managed pollinators that are being used routinely for decades for pollination services of a large number of crop species grown in monoculture cropping system. Thus, pollination constraints have raised serious concern on the sustenance of crop productivity and plant diversity in the coming decades. Concerted efforts are being made around the world to study pollinator and pollination both in natural and agricultural habitats to mitigate the crisis. Recent approaches have been to use integrated pollination services using the wild as well as managed pollinators for crop species and to make the agricultural and natural habitats favourable for the sustenance of pollinators. Unfortunately, biologists in the tropics in general and India in particular have remained indifferent about pollinators and pollination services of wild as well as pollinator-dependent crop species. Serious efforts are needed to initiate extensive studies on the pollination ecology of our crops and wild species and make all possible efforts to identify and alleviate the pollinator crisis.