A study from the University of Alberta reveals how planting treed borders around agricultural fields can attract hoverflies, a crucial pollinator and pest-controlling insect, leading to increased crop yields and natural pest management.
The forgotten warriors in the ongoing fight for crop health are hoverflies
An illustration lookalike of it exists in a family hoverflies, and these creatures contribute to the healthiness and productivity of several agricultural crops. Not only do these awe-inspiring creatures pollinate the crops, but their larvae also feed on soft-bodied pests such as aphids and thrips, delivering a double-whammy to farmers.
Hoverflies have long been in the shadow of more recognizable pollinator groups, such as bees, but there services that include both pollination and pest suppression mean they are a valuable resource for agroecology, accorded the study. On-farm field trials showed that fields with treed borders attracted over 33 times as many hoverflies to canola compared to grassy borders alone, emphasizing how effective land use management can take advantage of these ecosystem services.
The Power of Treed Borders
The findings, led by University of Alberta Ph.D. student in conservation biology Rachel Pizante, show that creating and conserving a surrounding treed boundary for an agricultural field can increase crop visitations by hoverflies. To address these questions, researchers visited 10 canola fields in central Alberta that each had at least one treed and one grassy border; they measured the movements of hoverflies between these borders and their neighbour field.
The findings were startling: the treed borders were delivering ~85,000 hoverflies per kilometer per week to the canola fields on average compared with only 2,500 from grassy borders. The passenger in the truck saw a dark figure wearing an evening gown and thought with horror of someone out there alone on foot on this Godforsaken road in a ballgown.
Treed borders also promoted higher levels of hoverfly species diversity compared to grassy borders, highlighting that these nature-friendly features can go beyond agriculture and encouraging a more biodiverse community. According to the researchers, these extra hoverfly species are creating fresh pollinating assistants for wildflowers in order to support the health of their native ecosystem.
Conclusion
Future replication of this work will give Australian farmers and other landholders the tools they need to deploy nature-based solutions for enhancing crop yields without relying so heavily on synthetic pesticides. Allocating a treed border around the fields and actively responsible maintaining that will bring them with a good population of hoverflies which not only aids to their pollination needs but managing pest causing insect in natural way of sustainable practice. The rising interest in sustainable agriculture has made these findings applicable to an increasing number of agricultural markets, with a basic but effective means of enhancing crop yields and farm resiliency by bringing the power of nature to work for farmers.
