The integrated crop pollination project: Pollination status of Michigan highbush blueberry

Sustainable and economical pollination of specialty crops is increasingly at risk from the counteracting forces of declining bee populations and increased production of these fruit, nut, and vegetable crops. To proactively address this issue, a team of university research and extension staff, commercial pollination service providers, government scientists, and a nonprofit conservation organization are working to develop and test components of Integrated Crop Pollination at farms across the United States and in Canada. Building on recent and ongoing research to enhance farmland for native pollinators, the Project ICP team is using a common experimental design at multiple farms coupled with economic assessment of alternative practice, landscape modeling, education-outreach, and social science to determine the situations where different tactics will provide reliable and economical pollination of the target crops. This presentation will introduce the project, highlight initial results from studies of highbush blueberry in Michigan, and describe the direction of our study. We encourage those interested in this topic to visit our project website at www.icpbees.org.