Small creatures create big benefits, boosting agricultural income by 27.1 billion yuan

Original headline: Small creatures, big abilities: bees and others contribute enormously to Japanese agriculture every year

Bees contribute greatly to Japanese agriculture

According to Japanese media reports, data recently estimated by a research team at the National Institute for Agro-Environmental Sciences (located in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan) shows that insects such as bees that spread pollen and pollinate bring about 470 billion yen (about 27.1 billion yuan) in economic benefits to Japanese agriculture each year.

Japanese media said that about 70% of this is created by wild organisms, with contributions to the cultivation of fruit trees such as apples, cherries and plums in Japan particularly outstanding.

It is reported that this is the first nationwide estimate in Japan of the economic value of pollen-spreading organisms, including wild organisms. Akihiro Onuma, a chief researcher at the institute, emphasized the importance of protecting these organisms. He said: "Europe and the United States are already facing the problem of declining numbers of bees and other organisms. Once Japan has a similar problem, it may threaten a decline in agricultural output and an increase in production costs."

Based on data such as the agricultural output value of each prefecture in Japan in 2013 and the degree of dependence of various crops on insect pollination, the research team estimated the economic contribution of pollen-spreading organisms to agricultural production. The total contribution was about 473.1 billion yen, accounting for about 8.3% of total crop production. In addition to fruit trees, the contributions to the production of melons, watermelons, tomatoes and eggplants were also considerable.

Japanese media also pointed out that compared with the total economic contribution of about 105.6 billion yen from artificially kept Western honeybees and bumblebees, the contribution of wild organisms, mainly insects, was as high as about 333 billion yen, showing that protecting wild organisms has many benefits. (China News Service, February 22)