The costs of beekeeping for pollination services in the UK – an explorative study

Honey bees are a key managed pollination service resource in crop agriculture, providing flexible, highly generalist and resilient pollination service delivery to a broad range of UK crops. Despite their potential economic impacts, there is little information on the actual costs involved in providing pollination services experienced by UK beekeepers. Utilizing an online survey of UK beekeepers, this study examines the full economic costs of providing pollination services to crops in the UK, as well as examining the differences in costs experienced by different beekeepers. The findings indicate that <10% of respondent beekeepers, mainly professionals, actively provide pollination services to crops, and rarely receive payment for this in field crops. In apple orchards, where beekeepers most often receive payments, the benefits to the orchard are estimated at 86–149 times the payments received by beekeepers. Although exploratory, the findings highlight the need for wider collection of information on beekeeping costs and several key knowledge gaps that could influence future development of the UK bee farming industry.

蜜蜂是作物农业领域关键的人工管理授粉服务资源，可为英国境内多种农作物提供灵活、高度泛化且韧性优异的授粉服务支持。尽管授粉服务具备可观的经济影响潜力，但目前针对英国养蜂人实际提供授粉服务所产生的真实成本，相关信息仍较为匮乏。本研究通过对英国养蜂人开展线上问卷调查，系统评估了英国境内为农作物提供授粉服务的全经济成本，并分析了不同养蜂群体所承担成本的差异。研究结果显示，受访养蜂人中不足10%的群体（主要为专业养蜂者）会主动为农作物提供授粉服务，且针对大田作物的此类服务极少能获得报酬。在养蜂人最常获得报酬的苹果园场景中，果园获得的授粉效益约为养蜂人所得报酬的86至149倍。尽管本研究属于探索性工作，但其结果仍凸显了全面收集养蜂成本相关信息的必要性，同时也指出了若干可能制约英国养蜂业未来发展的关键认知缺口。