The head of the organization notes that according to the preliminary assessment of the results of overwintering, Moldova’s beekeeping lost 30-40% of all bee families. At the moment, beekeepers are working to compensate for the losses. For normal development of bee families it is necessary to feed them during one month – before the first active honey collection from acacia. At this point, it would be logical to place hives in stone fruit orchards, between flowering trees. This is of mutual interest to orchardists (pollination, increasing yields) and beekeepers (increasing the forage base). However, the work of transporting the hives to the plantations is an increasing expense. Accordingly, it would be fair for farmers to compensate beekeepers for them to some extent – on the basis of contracts for pollination services.
“There are already precedents for such cooperation,” states Ion Maxim. – There are cases when horticultural farms pay beekeepers 250-300 lei per bee family for pollination. This should become a standard, large-scale practice, part of a mutually beneficial business”.
