Organic farming improves pollination success in strawberries

Abstract

Pollination of insect pollinated crops has been found to be correlated to pollinator abundance and diversity. Since organic farming has the potential to mitigate negative effects of agricultural intensification on biodiversity, it may also benefit crop pollination, but direct evidence of this is scant. We evaluated the effect of organic farming on pollination of strawberry plants focusing on (1) if pollination success was higher on organic farms compared to conventional farms, and (2) if there was a time lag from conversion to organic farming until an effect was manifested. We found that pollination success and the proportion of fully pollinated berries were higher on organic compared to conventional farms and this difference was already evident 2-4 years after conversion to organic farming. Our results suggest that conversion to organic farming may rapidly increase pollination success and hence benefit the ecosystem service of crop pollination regarding both yield quantity and quality.

Figure 1. Mean number of malformations.

The mean number of malformations on strawberries from plants on organic and conventional farms. Boxes represent 25^th and 75^th of the sample, dots the median and error-bars the minimum and maximum values respectively.

Figure 2. Proportion of fully pollinated strawberries.

The proportion of fully pollinated strawberries, i.e. having no malformations, from plants on organic and conventional farms. Boxes represent 25^th and 75^th of the sample, dots the median and error-bars the minimum and maximum values respectively.