Experts warn the indiscriminate use of insecticides by farmers in Bangladesh to protect their crops is harming beneficial honey bees, Mongabay contributor Sadiqur Rahman reported in March.
Beekeeper Pavel Hossen, who set up an apiary on land next to a black cumin farm, hoped his honey bees (Apis mellifera) would feed on the flowers of the cumin crops and collect nectar. But Hossen told Rahman his hives didn’t fill up with as much honey he expected. “Bees cannot forage freely across insecticide-treated crop fields. Their population growth is also slowing down,” he said.
His neighbor Abdul Hakim, who owns the cumin farm, said he uses chemicals that sellers suggest. Among the popular chemicals being peddled to farmers like Hakim are neonicotinoids that are used on crops such as rice, wheat and black cumin.
These pesticides are meant to kill agricultural pests, including brown planthoppers, aphids and mealybugs. In fact, neonicotinoids and other agricultural chemicals are being increasingly used in Bangladesh and are now found in 600 brand products.
But Rahman reported that most farmers are unaware of the chemicals’ appropriate doses or the effects of their excessive use on pollinators like honey bees.
“Because of food shortages, limited foraging grounds and frequent poisoning from insecticides, the population of honey bees is decreasing alarmingly,” Nurul Islam, executive director of the Bangladesh Institute of Apiculture, told Rahman.
There’s been no nationwide bee population survey in Bangladesh, but in 2019, the Food and Agricultural Organization of the U.N. warned of bee populations declining in many parts of the world due to agricultural chemicals, monocropping, intensive farming practices and climate change.
A 2024 study found that neonicotinoid insecticides are highly toxic to bees, causing behavioral and physiological disruptions and even death. Study co-author Mamunur Rahman, a professor at Gazipur Agricultural University, said long-term exposure to neonicotinoids can affect the growth of eggs, larvae and pupae of bee colonies, as well as diminish their pollen collection capacity.
He added that Bangladesh needs a scientifically sound approach to pest management and stronger laws to regulate the use of the pesticide.
Conservationists in Bangladesh have called for a ban on agrochemicals that unintentionally kill pollinators such as bees. However, officials from the Department of Agricultural Extension haven’t paid heed, continuing to allow the use of neonicotinoid insecticides, Rahman reported.
“We are unaware of the side effects of neonicotinoids,” Nur E Alam Siddique, deputy director at the pesticide administration and quality control wing of the DAE, told Rahman.
Zakir Hossen, a chemistry professor at Bangladesh Agricultural University, said that pesticides, despite being harmful to all kinds of insects, have become important in ensuring food security in the country.
Read the full story bySadiqur Rahmanhere.
Banner image of beekeepers monitoring hives Bangladesh. Image by Sadiqur Rahman.
