Poverty alleviation, employment creation, environmental conservation and income augmentation can be transformed based on agricultural diversification. Lotus farming is considered as a solution to improve income and livelihood for smallholder farmers. Many different products and values can be explored from lotus farming including lotus flower, lotus root, lotus seed, lotus fibre, as well as combining ecotourism. But many barriers are preventing the lotus products diversification of lotus growers. This study will provide a better understanding of lotus farming and explore the barriers to lotus products diversification and causes of these barriers. Phong Dien district, central Vietnam was selected as a case study. The qualitative research was applied through 54 semi-structured interviews including lotus growers, lotus buyers and officers of local government, as well as one focus-group discussion, observation method and secondary data from statistical data and reports were also conducted. The research findings indicated that there is a big gap between lotus products diversification of lotus growers and available lotus products on the market. Lotus growers only grow and sell raw products, of which, fresh unshelled lotus seed is the main product. Lack of knowledge, worries on loss, lack of market and market information, lack of labour and machines and traditional production habits are main determinants of the barriers. Characteristics of lotus seed, high production and monopoly of collectors are different features in barriers to lotus product diversification compared to other crop diversification.

Bumblebee activity interaction with solar irradiation, solar irradiation and HPS lighting irradiation, the HPS effect of photoperiod, day temperature and hive density were assessed with tomato fruit weights in a commercial tomato glass greenhouse in 2020–2021. Pollination activity was measured by observing ten randomly chosen cv. ‘Be orange’ tomato plants and by counting bumblebee bruised tomato flowers. MANOVA was conducted between factors and bee activity, followed by Pearson’s correlation. A Mann-Whitney U test was calculated to determine the significance between tomato flower bruising levels and fruit weights, followed by Cliff’s delta (d). Pollination activity decreased mainly in December and January when solar irradiation decreased to below 110 J cmE−2 dayE−1. Bumblebee activity was significantly affected by solar irradiation with HPS lighting (p is less than 0.001; p is less than 0.01). There was a significant correlation between bumblebee activity and solar irradiation (r= 0.75; p is less than 0.05), and solar irradiation with HPS lighting (r= 0.70; p is less than 0.05). There was no correlation between bumblebee activity and fruit weights (r= −0.20; p is less than 0.05). Bruised flowers had significantly greater fruit weight increases (165.7 g) compared to unbruised flowers (123.4 g) (d= 0.12; p is less than 0.05). Bee activity rates between 60% and 80% can be concluded as an effective rate for tomato growers. Bumblebees need at least 110–154 J cmE−2 dayE−1 of solar irradiation to achieve a high pollination activity rate in temperate climate zones during the winter season.