Sunflowers, Bees
Collateral Victims in Effort for Clean Safe Food
By Dr. Michael A.
Bengwayan
Baguio City,
Philippines---Fifty Christmas seasons ago, much of this city and the
Cordillera provinces' woodlands, valleys, glens and landscapes were
beautifully carpeted with golden wild sunflowers (Tithonia
diversifolia) Wild bees abounded, pollinating wild and domesticated
flowers, ensuring genetic evolution.
Today, the
sunflowers are sparse, the fields ugly, pockmarked by human touch as
thousands of the plants are cut and killed intentionally two months
before every Christmas season. Considered by apiculturists as the
best sources of nectar for wild and domesticated bees alike in this
part of the country, the plants are being killed resulting to the
loss of billions of bees, the world's best pollinators.
A quote often
ascribed to Albert Einstein but without no known proof says, "If
the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no
more than four years to live" highlighting how vital bees are
to the survival of of plant and animal species on the planet,
including humans.
Use of Sunflowers
as Fertilizer, an Indigenous Know-how
The wild
sunflowers, native to Mexico, are being cut in the Cordillera region
to be used either as green manure or composting material for the
production of organically-grown vegetables.
Unwittingly,
farmers intending to satisfy consumers' growing demand for
organically-grown safe and nutritious vegetables cut thousands of
the plants from September to November and compost these as organic
fertilizer. This allows them to make a killing in the market when
they harvest their crops near Christmas and New Year, the seasons
when vegetables are in their peak demand.
Locally called
“marapait”, the wild sunflowers use as rich fertilizer can be
traced to the indigenous knowledge of the natives of Mountain
Province. For hundreds of years, they have used the plant as basal
fertilizer, incorporating these in rice paddies together with pig
manure and composted rice straw. Many farms in Mountain Province grow
sunflower hedges as sole source of nitrogen fertilizer. Sunflower
biomass decomposes rapidly after application to the soil.
The use is not
without scientific basis. Then Philippine Department of Agriculture
have found that sunflower leaves have high nitrogen content (2.9
percent oven dry weight) and that a ton of fresh sunflower can yield
as much as 60 kg of nitrogen fertilizer. Nitrogen is the most basic
fertilizer element needed by crops.
The United Nations
Food and Agricultural Organization (UNFAO) and the International
Center for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF) say wild sunflower leaf
biomass is high in nutrients, averaging about 3.5% nitrogen, 0.37%
potassium and 4.1% phosphorus on a dry matter basis. This means the
high nitrogen content is good for green plants.
Wild sunflower is
a robust herbaceous and bushy perennial that grows up to 3 to 4
meters tall. Branches are stout, with hollow stems. The plant
produces large flower heads with bright yellow to golden petals.
How Are Bees
Affected Adversely?
The manner and
process how honey is made is one of God's wonders science can't
duplicate.
Worker bees, after
hibernating on the rainy and stormy months of June to September,
start foraging for nectar and pollen on October. It is also on these
months that sunflowers bloom with overflowing nectar. Nectar is the
sugary liquid found in flowers. Worker bees using their long,
tube-shaped tongues sip the nectar from the flowers and store this in
their crop. While sloshing inside the bees' crop, the nectar mixes
with enzymes that transform its chemical composition making it more
suitable for long-term storage.
Apiculturist
Nelson Palispis who trains farmers in this province explained in one
of his trainings, “When a workerbee returns to the hive, it passes
the nectar to another bee by regurgitating the liquid into the other
bee's mouth. This regurgitation process is repeated until the
partially digested nectar is finally deposited into a honeycomb”.
It does not end
there. “Once in the comb, the nectar, still a viscous liquid, is
fanned by the bees using their wings to speed up the process of
evaporating any water. When most of the water has evaporated from the
honeycomb, the bees seal the comb with a secretion of liquid from
their abdomen, which eventually hardens into beeswax. Away from air
and water, the honey is stored indefinitely, providing bees with the
perfect food source for cold and rainy months, “Nelson elaborated.
Unfortunately,
just as the bees time their nectar foraging from September to
December, these are also the months when hundreds of farmers engaged
in organic vegetable growing, cut thousands of sunflower plants to
death, harvesting these be composted as fertilizer. As a consequence,
the bees are deprived of plants rich in nectar. The bees are forced
to forage on other plants mostly vegetables sprayed with deadly
insecticides resulting to the death of millions of bees.
New Zealand-based
apiculturist and former chief beekeeper of Saint Louis University's
Beekeeping program here Jose Bandiwan lamented “Benguet is the
country's worst user of dangerous pesticides, this uncontrolled
chemical abuse is killing everything—bees, birds, beneficial
insects, the soil, water—it is practically a biocide.”
“With the wild
sunflowers, bees have a chance on foraging on non-poisoned sources of
nectar, but when you kill the sunflowers the bees are forced to
forage on vegetable flowers laced with chemicals, killing thousands
of bees everyday,” he deplored.
Worldwide, the
Malaysia-based Pesticide Action Network(PAN) says billions of bees
are being wiped out due to pesticides yearly, and honey tests reveal
worldwide contamination by bee-killing pesticides. It warns of
ecological Armageddon if the dramatic fall of inset numbers don't
abate.
Nelson is one of
the fortunate beekeepers in the province, his bee colonies are
situated in the village of Anchukey more than 1,500 masl opposite
Mount Pulag, far from farms and surrounded by thousands of sunflower
plants.
A Need for A
Mutualistic Understanding
Jose believes it
is senseless depriving bees of priceless sunflower nectar and people
from appreciating the beauty of sunflowers. He likewise avers
beekeepers and organic vegetable growers to benefit alike from
sunflowers and bees. “Apiculturists and organic vegetable growers
must agree on a timetable that allows bees to forage nectar before
the sunflower plants are harvested to be composted, most likely the
months of September and October. Organic vegetable growers can cut
the sunflower plants after those months,” he proposed.
“Organic
vegetable growers can also harvest plants that have finished
blooming. On one hand, farmers and beekeepers must not merely depend
on the resources without sweat, they must plant more sunflowers,”
he added.
The idea led the
government of New Zealand to support a Project Marapait in Benguet
aimed at increasing bees for pollination at the same time
intensifying planting of sunflowers. The project, implemented by the
Cordillera Ecological Center has put a shot in the arm to beekeeping
in the province.
Today, the
sunflower plants may be less than before, the bees foraging may be
fewer but Nelson says there is light ahead of the tunnel. “Nature
has a way of healing we hardly understand if we don’t do our part.
Planting those that give life is not nature’s sole responsibility,
we must do our share, “he quipped.
--
Treekeeper
