According to the latest data, wild pollinating insects are twice as effective as honey bees in producing seeds and fruits from crops.

Wild insects are responsible for the management of a significant part of the world’s food crops. As a result, the reduction of these wild pollinators may pose a greater threat to yields than the loss of honey bees, according to research conducted by the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research in San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina, and led by Lucas Garibaldi, on 41 of the main crop plants on five continents. The study has been published in the journal Science.

This research reveals that these wild insects are responsible for pollinating crops more effectively, producing twice as much food. In this sense, the need to focus attention on them was addressed, since there is a decrease in wild insects, which would end up affecting agricultural yields worldwide.

In this way, the study concludes that biodiversity has an important role in food production and that some species that are managed cannot meet the compensation of this biodiversity, which may undermine the ability of agriculture to meet the growing demand.

Another study, led by Laura Burkle of the University of Washington in Montana, has compared these wild insects in the United States, concluding that more than half of the species were lost in the 20th century. Combining the records made at the end of the nineteenth century and those collected in 2009-2010, a serious deterioration in the pollination process has been discovered due to the disappearance of specimens, to which is added the factor of climate change that has delayed the flowering season with the dates of greatest activity of bees.