The drought is creating dramatic problems for agriculture, but in some areas of the country and for some categories, we can speak of a real alarm; like in Sicily where beekeepers risk losing much of their honey production
The drought is creating dramatic problems for agriculture, but in some areas of the country and for some categories, we can speak of a real alarm; like in Sicily where beekeepers risk losing much of their honey production. Antonio Coco, president of the Regional Association of Sicilian Beekeepers (Aras), told this to Salvagente.
Coco, what is the situation in Sicily regarding the difficulties relating to climatic conditions for beekeepers, what are we talking about?
In general, farmers and breeders are on the front line in the face of the environmental crisis, in particular drought, and we beekeepers are the ones who are experiencing this crisis in full.
How does the absence of water affect the life of bees?
The flowers reward the bees with nectar for their pollination service. In this crisis situation even the flowers, if they have appeared, do not have much to give as a reward. And in many areas there were no flowers. Just take a walk from Catania to Palermo, in the central area, there is truly a meadow as if it were July, and where there has been flowering, the flowers have provided very little, therefore sufficient to date for the survival of the bees .
But it’s not enough…
We are also ready to provide emergency nutrition if necessary, because if the situation continues like this, we won’t make it to another spring.
What does rescue nutrition consist of?
It means that those who are lucky or those who do it out of attention and scruple have some honeycombs set aside and therefore will use them, if they don’t have them, they use the sugary substances authorized for feeding, to be administered inside the hive .
Climate change is nothing new this year
We are experiencing a huge environmental crisis because it is not the first year, even last year we thought we had hit rock bottom and instead this year we find ourselves in a situation that promises to be even worse. It’s not just about production, the problem is keeping the hives alive.
How did it go last year?
Last year we had a drop in production on average between 70 and 80%. Then keep in mind that there are microzones where there is a slightly more consistent production, but in general in Sicily we had this case of production.
When we talk about Sicilian beekeepers we are talking about how many companies?
The people who keep bees are just over 3200, in reality the people who make a living from beekeeping are a much smaller number.
Was there also a major bee death last year?
When I started 43 years ago it was normal, in quotes, to have an annual death rate of less than 5%. Today, mortality considered normal is around 20%. In 2021, to give some examples, on the Iblei, of the bee families that we were unable to move, take them to the mountains or to another part of Sicily, 50% died.
Bee nomadism has always been common for beekeeping, not only Sicilian, and normally the goal was to produce different honeys, we moved to the mountains to produce chestnut honeys or to chase classic summer blooms, such as thyme . Now more and more often it becomes an emergency practice that serves to save the areas where production is located.
Have businesses gone bankrupt due to drought?
I know several companies, even friends, that have closed in the last five years and not due to analogous problems, but precisely because it is increasingly difficult to earn an income. But it is also particularly sad because especially those who do beekeeping for income and sell honey wholesale had the problem of selling last year because the European market was clogged with a similar honey that invaded not only Italian but European markets , generally. Alongside this we have the environmental problem which is made up of many pieces, of which climate change is the most important. We have always had unfavorable years in agriculture, in isothermal conditions. The problem is that in the last ten years we have gone from a bad year to a worse one, with very few exceptions
Are the forecasts that this year will be worse than last year?
Catastrophic. But with droughts everywhere, clearly the outlook for the near future is extremely negative.
In your opinion, are there also human responsibilities in the management of the water crisis in Sicily, in the sense that could more and differently have been done?
As regards agriculture and animal husbandry, since they deal with agroecosystems in principle, certainly more can be done compared to agriculture, it means collecting water when it is available, with collection basins. We are really trench infantrymen in this undeclared but de facto declared war on the environment, so we are inside natural systems as well as in agroecosystems, and we can’t do absolutely anything there because if the flowers don’t have water we can’t water them .
Why?
The fields cultivated with sulla, a fodder plant, in central Sicily clearly cannot be irrigated because the conditions are not there anyway.
So to save bees, what can be done?
We always have the possibility to do things as a human community, as individuals and as a community. Specifically, we clearly need to help beekeeping companies survive at this time. It is not a problem of those thousand beekeepers who live from beekeeping, but it concerns agriculture, therefore our food and our environment, because most of the flowers, both in natural and agricultural environments, are pollinated thanks to bees .
What about other pollinating insects?
At this moment the pollinators, that is, those who propitiate the wedding of the flowers, which are mostly insects, the wild ones are experiencing the crisis even more, because while we beekeepers protect our bees, we also reproduce them artificially, we put inputs into the system of breeding, as far as wild pronobes are concerned, they are fully affected by the crisis and it is a crisis that has been widely documented throughout Europe, so at the moment those who govern the fate of the planet are bees, largely bred by man.
What do beekeepers need to reduce the climate impact of their work? Clearly all the policies that safeguard natural environments, therefore drastic reduction of all those pesticides, which is something possible, for the protection of ecosystems. Then also simply to safeguard companies: buy healthy and local products. As far as the environment is concerned, all truly green policies are essential. But the only problem to be made clear is not saving bees or beekeepers.
And what?
The problem is that bees are giving us the fundamental alarm signal, and at this moment it is as if there were a river in flood and there are the last banks supported by these families of insects. When the river practically breaks through at that point we will all realize, but in fact the river has already flooded. The problem, I repeat, is not saving those thousand Sicilian farmers. The problem is understanding that this thing is fundamental for everyone.
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