Pollinators under threat from Human Activities.

BY SAMUEL  NABWIISO

Anew report from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services report has revealed that Bees and other pollinators, such as butterflies, bats and hummingbirds, are increasingly under threat from human activities.

The report points out massive usage of Agricultural pesticide, Air Pollution from the Industries and other Human activities as the big treat to the existence of the vital Insects globally.The report urges the UN Member states to ensure that their national practices Environmentally friend Agriculture practices if the Pollinators are to be protected from the dangers associated with Human Activities   on the Biodiversity  Ecosystem.

“Increasing crop and regional farm diversity as well as targeted habitat conservation, management or restoration, is one way of combating climate change and promoting biodiversity,” says UN Environment biodiversity specialist Marieta Sakalian.

Bee visting  Sunflower such actions for the pollinators are key nin  food production 

In the report, Air pollution is also thought to be affecting bees. Preliminary research shows that air pollutants interact with scent molecules released by plants which bees need to locate food. The mixed signals interfere with the bee’s ability to forage, making them slower and less effective at pollination.

 Why pollinators should be protected from all dangerous chemicals?Pollinators contribute directly to food security. Nearly three quarters of the plants that produce 90 per cent of the world’s food require this external help. And according to bee experts at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, a third of the world’s food production depends on bees.

Bees are renowned for their role in providing high-quality food—honey, royal jelly and pollen—and other products such as beeswax, propolis and honey bee venom.

They are also part of the biodiversity on which we all depend for our survival. “Sacred passages about bees in all the worlds’ major religions highlight their significance to human societies over millennia,” says a May 2019 report by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).Bee keeping provides an important source of income for many rural livelihoods.

Tanzania Bans Buvera

Speed up GMO crop commercialization, Ghanaian farmers ask Government

BY Environment News Uganda   Correspondent.

Farmers in northern Ghana are calling on their government to speed up the commercialization of genetically modified (GM) crops in the country.

During a media briefing in Tamale, representatives of farmer groups under the coalition of Concerned Farmers of the Northern Region expressed their concern about the continuous decline of cotton and cowpea production in that part of the country.

Good Harvest , farmers in Ghana believes that once they commence farming Bt cotton their harvest will also Improve 

Farmers  attribute such decline to repeated pest attacks and are confident that GM crops will help them deal with such problems. The coalition includes the Northern Farmers Association, Juni Farmers Association, Northern Livestock Farmers Association, and the Northern Out growers  and Business Association.

The coalition has released a press statement delivered by conveners Ibrahim Alhassan of the Juni Farmers Association and Nasiru Adams of the Northern Farmers Association. In their statement, the farmers said that "biotechnology as a scientific tool is not a killer, but one that is used to modify seeds genetically for our good.

 It provides efficient solutions, to the problems we the farmers of Ghana face in our daily operations in crop and other production activities.

"To the government of Ghana, we say act now and facilitate the commercialization of GM variety seeds especially cowpea and rice. Let the farmers have the GM variety alongside the conventional seeds, we are simply demanding for our right of choice." Farmers said in Statement