Tenkasi (TN): To tackle the situation of low supply of sunflower oil, farmers from Sampawar Vadakarai, Tenkasi district of Tamil Nadu are pollinating the crops manually. "Manual Pollination was introduced because there are not enough bees for natural pollination in recent years" remarked Sheik Mohidin, Deputy Agriculture Officer, Sengottai constituency, Tenkasi. Scientists have already warned that bee population around the globe is declining due to climate change and the use of pesticides.
The supply of sunflower oil has also reduced due to the war in Ukraine. To meet the demands of sunflower oil, it was pertinent to pollinate crops manually. Besides, farmers claim that manual pollination results in better quality in seeds. "I had grown sunflowers in four acres for the past eight years. Often, yields were poor. We informed the agriculture officials, wherein they introduced us to hand pollination," says farmer K. Sivannan.
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"But the work is labor intensive. It requires the help of not only the farmer's family but also the daily wage laborers. This is why it is not implemented in Tuticorin district. Officials are trying to promote it. But most of the people want to work under MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) only," explains K. Navaneethan, president of Southern Dryland Farmers Association.
Bee scientist K. Suresh hints at the unregulated use of pesticides for the absence of bees from farms. "This is why farmers are advised to use insecticides such as Imidacloprid, which do not affect bees too much. But recent research shows that even imidacloprid affects bees”, he added. Farmers need to opt for eco-friendly crop protection using light traps, pheromone traps, botanical insecticides and biological control agents to limit the use of pesticides and help increase the number of bee colonies.
