Recent reports indicate that global insect populations are drastically declining, and amongst insects, bees have attracted significant attention. Decades of research on causal factors for bee population declines, indicate that extensive loss of natural habitats resulting from urbanization and agricultural intensification, has led to a dearth of critical nesting and forage resources essential for the sustenance of bees. To address these concerns and to meet the growing need for food production, simple but effective farm management practices such as restoring habitat diversity through planting pollinator habitats along field margins and underutilized areas, revegetating retired farmland with wildflowers and including pollinator-friendly forbs in cover crop mixes, have been recommended. Earlier studies have provided evidence that planting pollinator habitats along field margins and revegetating retired farmland are indeed viable ways to sustain bee pollinators. Here we report results of a case study exploring the benefits of cover cropping with a pollinator-friendly forb mix. Our results indicate that cover cropping to support pollinators can be effective, particularly when cover crops are retained until the flowering stage and that grazing of cover crops could extend support to those genera of bees that prefer grazed areas. Although the reports on global insect declines are dire, our studies show that pollinator-friendly farm management practices can offset the declines and play a significant role in supporting pollinator populations. Regular assessment of the efficacy of these practices will enable us to target efforts towards better implementation of habitat conservation programs.

The need to reduce pollinator exposure to harmful pesticides has led to calls to expedite the adoption of integrated pest management (IPM). We make the case that IPM is not explicitly ‘pollinator friendly’, but rather must be adapted to reduce impacts on pollinators and to facilitate synergies between crop pollination and pest control practices and ecosystem services. To reconcile these diverse needs, we introduce a systematic framework for ‘integrated pest and pollinator management’ (IPPM). We also highlight novel tools to unify monitoring and economic decision-making processes for IPPM and outline key policy actions and knowledge gaps. We propose that IPPM is needed to promote more coordinated, ecosystem-based strategies for sustainable food production, against the backdrop of increasing pesticide regulation and pollinator dependency in agriculture.[Display omitted]

The alarming loss of pollinator diversity world‐wide can reduce the productivity of pollinator‐dependent crops, which could have economic impacts. However, it is unclear to what extent the loss of a key native pollinator species affects crop production and farmer's profits. By experimentally manipulating the presence of colonies of a native bumblebee species Bombus pauloensis in eight apple orchards in South Argentina, we evaluated the impact of losing natural populations of a key native pollinator group on (a) crop yield, (b) pollination quality, and (c) farmer's profit. To do so, we performed a factorial experiment of pollinator exclusion (yes/no) and hand pollination (yes/no). Our results showed that biotic pollination increased ripe fruit set by 13% when compared to non‐biotic pollination. Additionally, fruit set and the number of fruits per apple tree was reduced by less than a half in those orchards where bumblebees were absent, even when honeybees were present at high densities. Consequently, farmer's profit was 2.4‐fold lower in farms lacking bumblebees than in farms hosting both pollinator species. The pollination experiment further suggested that the benefits of bumblebees could be mediated by improved pollen quality rather than quantity. Synthesis and applications. This study highlights the pervasive consequences of losing key pollinator functional groups, such as bumblebees, for apple production and local economies. Adopting pollinator‐friendly practices such as minimizing the use of synthetic inputs or restoring/maintaining semi‐natural habitats at farm and landscape scales, will have the double advantage of promoting biodiversity conservation, and increasing crop productivity and profitability for local farmers. Yet because the implementation of these practices can take time to deliver results, the management of native pollinator species can be a provisional complementary strategy to increase economic profitability of apple growers in the short term.

Loss of semi-natural habitats has been identified as a major driver for pollinator loss in agricultural landscapes. The challenge has been addressed in developed countries by creating flower strips and pollinator habitats in agricultural areas, but this approach has largely been overlooked in developing countries. However, even in countries that adopted pollinator-friendly measures, the complementarities between functional traits of plants and bees are not generally used as selection criteria for candidate species in floral strips. Furthermore, the combined effect of habitat variables that are likely to maximize bee visitation are also overlooked. In tropical developing countries, even the basic information to inform decision making is missing. This paper attempts to bridge this critical gap and reports how assemblages of different non-crop plants could be used to attract bees in tropical small landholdings by investigating non-crop plant identity, non-crop floral traits, bee traits and influential habitat variables at patch scale. Results showed that a combination of both non-crop flower density and diversity increased bee visitation at patch scale. Moreover, trait-based analyses revealed that bees with a larger inter-tegular distance, longer tongue frequently visited flowers with a longer corolla. This study demonstrates that both characteristics of non-crop flower patches and floral traits are important for effective management of non-crops in tropical farmland to attract pollinators with complementary functional traits. We have explored a range of non-crop plants that could be effectively sown to attract bees but recognise that more research is necessary in order to standardise their propagation, establishment and management techniques.