Agrochemicals and Pollinator Diversity: A Socio-ecological Synthesis

Pollinators sustain global populations by enhancing plant diversity and related food production. Nowadays, practicing intensive agriculture involves excessive agrochemical inputs. Agrochemicals are the biggest environmental risks with the potential of poisoning plants and soils on which pollinators depend for foraging, shelter, and pollination. Some pollinators such as butterflies, bees, moths, wasps, birds, and small mammals help in pollinating flowers frequently during needs for food, shelter, and mates. Butterflies love red and purple flowers of lilac, lavender, mints, and phlox even though they live in hollows of logs of many tree species. Bees pollinate sunflowers, hyacinths, goldenrod, and snapdragons, whereas hummingbirds are attracted to Chinese bell flowers, bird of paradise, fuchsia, columbine, and yellow trumpet bush. Pollinators may be exposed to agrochemicals directly or indirectly resulting in One Health consequences such as biodiversity loss, degradation of valuable environmental services, and human food and health insecurity. Pollinators are highly interacting with plants on which humans depend for their sustenance. Excessive usage of agrochemicals destroys pollinator diversity which detriments plant, human, animal, and environmental health. It affects all the social, economic, and ecological dimensions of sustainability. Global shifting pollinator communities are key socio-ecological concerns and challenges in this Anthropocene geological epoch. Therefore, protecting pollinators like bees and other insect species from the multidimensional risks of agrochemicals is highly advocated especially through the establishment, updating, reframing, and reorganization of policies and regulations. Also, greater awareness of the human, biodiversity, and environmental health implications of agrochemical usage is recommended through local to global platforms. However, constructive policies and plans are needed to dilute agrochemical usage in any agroecological system that helps in maintaining pollinator population and diversity. Therefore, pollinators maximize plant diversity and intensify many ecosystem services which maintain soil, food, and climate security at local and global scales. Furthermore, a transdisciplinary approach like One Health is needed for targeting agrochemical usage toward safeguarding pollinators that strengthen the socio-ecological and economic paradigm of local to global sustainable development. Importantly, scientific research focus on the implications of diverse agrochemicals is necessary for safeguarding pollinators as well as the maintenance of environmental sustainability and eco-sociological stability.