Save the Bees? There's an App for That

Typography

New mobile app to help farmers protect pollinators.

Let’s say a farmer wants to plant wildflowers to nurture the bumble bees that pollinate her crops.

Currently, she would have to walk through her fields, assess locations, take measurements, spend hours crunching costs, and still only guess at the amount of bees and pollination the effort will generate.

Soon, the farmer can do it all on her phone or computer with a mobile app that will calculate the crop productivity and pollination benefits of supporting endangered bees.

University of Vermont (UVM) bee expert Taylor Ricketts, who is co-leading the app’s development, introduced the technology at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting panel, Plan Bee: Pollinators, Food Production and U.S. Policy, on Feb. 19.

 

Continue reading at University of Vermont.

Photo via University of Vermont.