Pollination services

Abstract

About 75 percent of the most important crops worldwide depend on animals for pollination. Insects are especially diverse and important pollinators, supporting crops that are crucial for human nutrition, which are also vital to the economic development of different regions. The production and profitability of many crops depend entirely on insect pollination (for example, almonds, cocoa beans, blueberries and gourds), but the degree of dependence tends to differ across crops and varieties. Although some primary cash crops (for example, canola/rapeseed, soybeans, cotton and coconuts) appear to have a moderate or low dependency on pollinators, studies show that the disappearance of pollinators would still have a significant negative impact on their productivity.