Payments for pollination services – an unexplored opportunity for African beekeepers

As pollination services by bees is increasingly acknowledged and pollinator deficits are observed in
agricultural fields in many parts of the world, payments for pollination services (PPS) can play an important role in securing an adequate crop yield for farmers while generating additional income to bee keepers. This is also the case for Africa, where small-scale bee keeping is widespread. Combining a global pilot survey of PPS schemes among beekeepers associations with a review of the sparsely documented experiences of PPS schemes, this study identifies and discusses the opportunities, constraints and challenges for PPS to work in agricultural regions of Africa. PPS schemes exist in many countries across the world, but besides South Africa, PPS schemes are mainly unknown on the African continent. The constraints for development of PPS schemes include low awareness among farmers of the importance of bees for pollination and perception of pollination being freely and adequately provided by nature thus resulting in low demand for pollination
services; a widespread use of traditional methods for beekeeping and a limited number of large scale beekeepers or beekeepers associations with sufficient number of beehives; poor rural infrastructure and low transport capacity among beekeepers limiting mobility of beehives for timely provision of pollinators; and limited institutional capacity for pollination markets. Furthermore, lack of political prioritization of pollination aspects hinders national strategies for promotion of pollination payment schemes.