Tropical agroforestry supports insect pollinators and improves bean yield

Pollination services contribute to crop productivity worldwide, but insect pollinators are declining in most agricultural landscapes, mainly due to agricultural expansion and an increase in intensive agricultural practices. To reduce the negative effects of agricultural expansion and intensification, farmers can adopt ecological interventions, such as diversifying agricultural systems through agroforestry. However, there have been variable results on the effectiveness of agroforestry in enhancing pollinators and pollination services. Furthermore, most of the information has been generated in temperate regions, while the impact of agroforestry in tropical East Africa is largely unknown. Using common beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) as the focal crop, this study tested whether a tropical agroforestry system called Chagga home gardens supports pollinator communities and improves pollination and crop yield. We examined 16 agroforestry plots paired with 16 non-agroforestry plots located along a..., , , # Tropical agroforestry supports insect pollinators and improves bean yield

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.3tx95x6pd](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.3tx95x6pd)

## Description of the data and file structure

The dataset contains three files.

1. Insect pollinator data: These data were used to analyse insect pollinator abundance, species richness, and visitation rates. The file contains 11 columns and 33 rows. All the column headings are self-explanatory. For the rows, apart from the headings row, the file has 32 rows (16 for agroforestry plots and 16 for non-agroforestry plots)

Farming system: This column contains the plots of the two farming systems studied in this paper (16 agroforestry and 16 non-agroforestry plots)

PairID: This column contains the pairs identification numbers, eg. we had 16 pairs and 32 plot, so pair 1 contains two plots, one is agroforestry and one is non-agroforestry

PlotID: This column contains plot identification number, eg. Pair 1 has two plots...