Protecting Farmland Pollinators

Pollinators are important for growing insect-pollinated crops, fruits, and vegetables; for the health of our environment; for their cultural significance and for the economy. Farmers recognise this importance, but farmland has experienced wide-scale loss of wild pollinators over the last 50 years. In Ireland, one third of our 101 wild bee species are threatened with extinction.

The Protecting Farmland Pollinators EIP project began in July 2019 and finished at the end of 2023. Across this period, we worked with a group of 40 farmers, across farm types (arable, beef, dairy, and mixed) and intensities (high, medium, and low) in Co. Kildare and neighbouring counties.

The project demonstrated that farmers have a huge interest in learning about biodiversity and want to know how to maintain, protect and enhance biodiversity on their farms and have a productive farming system.

By working closely with a pilot group of 40 farmers, management practices that benefit pollinators on Irish farmland were identified, and a whole farm pollinator scoring system was developed. The score is based on providing food, safety, and shelter for pollinators on the farm. This score helps farmers to understand how pollinator friendly their farm is, and identify what simple, low-cost actions they can take to work to improve their farm for pollinatorsin a way that does not negatively affect productivity.

Food for pollinators

Pollinators need flowers to feed on nectar and pollen, incorporate more flowers into farms by changing managment without impacting productivity.

Hedgerows

Reducing hedgerow cutting  frequencing means more food for pollinators. Cutting too often drastically reduces pollinators food. We have a wonderful network of hedgerows in Ireland, so reduce your cutting and allow pollinators to feed and move throughout the countryside.

Pollinator friendly trees

During spring and early summer, trees are invaluable source of pollen and nectar, especially when other resources are limited. Native trees of local provenance is best for pollinators. These trees have developed in your local are and are best suited to support your local pollinators.

Incorporate more wildflowers

Wildflowers can be found all over farms in small areas like margins along hedgerows or roads, around gates or they could be in agriculturally productive fields.  It’s easy to increase the number of wildflowers by allowing plants to flower and set seed for the following year. This can be acheived by protecting from grazing animals in non-farmed areas, or reducing grazing in agriculturally productive areas and reducing inputs, fertiliser and pesticides.

Shelter for pollinators

Pollinators need somewhere to nest. Nesting habitat is a known limiting factor for bees on farmland and if you’re after working hard to provide more food, now it’s time to provide a place to rest and lay eggs!

Ground nesting bees

Eighty percent of our solitary bee nest in the ground! Creating space for solitary bees couldn’t simplier, you just need a shovel and to find a south facing bank!

Cavity nesting bees

Ground nesting bees, as the name suggest, nest in the ground and cavity nesting bees, nest in wood, hollow plant stems and in bee hotels!

Look at the link below and create your own solitary bee nest!

Safety for pollinators

Pesticides (fungicides, herbicides, and insecticides) have been shown to have negative effects on bees and other living organisms (lethal and sub-lethal). Consider elimating/reducing pesticides or limiting herbicide use to spot spray noxius weeds and invasive plants.

If you’re looking to improve your land for pollinators, you must first know what you have! The Project produced resources so you could learn to identify hoverflies and moths!

Find the resources produced through Protecting Farmland Pollinators below!

Each month we published a very short Protecting Farmland Pollinators newsletter. The newsletter provided a brief update on the project and provided examples of actions that can be undertaken on farmland to help pollinators and wider biodiversity. The newsletter also provided information on one of our native pollinator species to keep an eye out for, a plant species to keep an eye out for, and additional information relating to pollinators and biodiversity.

The final report for the Protecting Farmland Pollinators European Innovation Partnership Project is available for download.

Please note that since 2023, we have further developed the scoring tool. It has been simplified to score farms out of 100. Based on the pollinator data collected in the project, those farms that score 50+ are supporting pollinators and those that score 70+ are pollinator friendly. This ‘Farmland Pollinator Tool’ will be incorporated into the next All-Ireland Pollinator Plan 2026-2030 when it will be made publicly available for use.  By encouraging farmers across the island to score their farms,  and celebrating those whose farms are supporting pollinators, we hope this initiative will help promote the positive role agriculture is playing in the biodiversity crisis.