Volume 14, No.1, March 2012

Insects, as pollinators, decomposers and as natural enemies of crop pests provide a whole lot of ecological services to mankind. Insects are among the most common and diverse organisms in the environment. The contribution of insects as pollinators to the production of crops used directly for human food has been estimated at 153 billion Euros globally. But, we are gradually losing this insect diversity largely owing to the way we farm. Many studies show that insect pests tend to be less abundant and do less damage in fields which follow the agro-ecological principles. In this issue, we have presented some cases which show how individuals and institutions are taking initiatives to promote methods which are least damaging to the insects, while resulting in sustainable production.

Content

4 Editorial

5 Honeybees in mountain agriculture

Uma Partap

9 Bloom sequences keep pollinators in fields

Margaret Mayfield and Vasuki V Belavadi

12 Pollinators – key for agro biodiversity conservation

Robert Leo and Mathew John

17 Insects or Pests? Only practice decides

J Krishnan

20 Mulch, a home for insects

Sam Adams

22 Honey Bees – Inevitable for our survival

S M Shanthaveeraiah

23 Farmer friendly Owls

Satish Pande

25 Farmers Diary: Recalling biodiversity – Farming the Agnihotra way

Tejasvi Naik

26 Insect conservation

John Holland

29 The Narayana Reddy Column

Living with insects

30 New Books

32 Sources

34 Honey Bees: Farmers best friends

Vijaya Pastala and Sujana Krishnamoorthy

Download  PDF

For earlier issues click here