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According to official statistics, the country has improved its global ranking in honey production by four places from No. 7 to No. 3, Rao Matta, the FAO representative to Iran, told Iran Daily on the sidelines of a ceremony to mark World Bee Day at the Slovenian Embassy in Tehran on Sunday.
He said at present China and Turkey are the world’s first and second biggest honey producers.
“Given the importance people attach to honey and its products in Iran, the country will definitely have excellent prospects of reaching loftier heights [in this field].”
Commenting on the event, Matta said being initially promoted by Slovenia through FAO, World Bee Day is an important occasion.
“We took it to the United Nations and finally May 20 was declared as World Bee Day.”
He noted that not many people realize the critical role bees and other pollinators play in term of ensuring food diversity and security, nutrition and maintaining ecological balance.
Matta underlined that bees are very important in understanding the ecosystem health and diversity as they are indicators.
“We are happy that this event is being promoted to raise public awareness of the importance of bees and other pollinators.”
He said the FAO is implementing many initiatives related to supporting bees and promoting apiculture, particularly in small-sized and family farms.
Studies, Matta added, indicate that a production increase of up to 30 percent can be achieved through activating simple mechanisms such as promoting bee pollination.
He stated that FAO mainly focuses on expanding and stimulating food production by ensuring good pollination and services of pollinators.
Commenting on cooperation between his organization and Iran, Matta said the Middle Eastern state has always had excellent cooperation with FAO.
“We will be very soon celebrating 40 years of partnership between Iran and the FAO.”
He said the FAO is cooperating with Iran in a number of fields including food production, water productivity and fisheries improvement as well as enhancing the productivity of small-sized and family farms.
Asked whether the FAO is allocating any funds to Iran, he said this is currently in process. Many initiatives have been planned to this end, Matta added.
Addressing the ceremony, he said FAO Director General José Graziano da Silva famously stated during a visit to Slovenia’s national beekeepers’ festival in 2016 that 'A world without pollinators would be a world without food diversity — and in the long run, without food security.'
Matta added bees and other pollinators sustain one third of all food produced globally.
“FAO estimates that out of some 100 crop species, which provide 90 percent of the food worldwide, 71 are bee pollinated. In addition, they also contribute to nutrition security with their highly nutritious products such as honey, royal jelly and pollen.”
He underlined that beyond the importance of pollination for the livelihood of and income of farmers worldwide as well as for the food security, bees are of great importance for maintaining the ecological balance and ensuring the conservation of biodiversity in nature.
“Bees are a sign of well-functioning ecosystems. To a great extent the decline of pollinators is also a sign of the disruptions that global changes are causing to ecosystems of the world.”
Matta cautioned that yet, despite their critical role, in the recent period, especially in areas with intensive agriculture, bees are increasingly endangered due to environmental threats.
“We are courting collapse by increasingly exposing bees to evermore numerous hazards.”
He regretted that shrinking habitat along with negative impacts of expanding monoculture areas as well as modified and intensified grassland cultivation technology have led to decline in development of bee colonies.
“The situation is made worse by new bee diseases and pests, whose effects are aggravated by deteriorating resistance of bee colonies and impacts of globalization that allows for the transfer of pests over long distances.”
He said similar to Slovenians, Iranians have a longstanding tradition of beekeeping.
“They have been engaged in beekeeping for more than two thousand years. Although apiculture, as we know it in its modern industrial form, started in recent decades in Iran, the number of beekeepers and the amount of honey produced in the country are increasing year by year. In 2016, Iran was the seventh biggest honey producer in the world, producing up to 77,000 tons of honey. Last year, according to official numbers, Iran increased honey production to 88,000 tons.”
He said this propitious development bodes well for the future and we will be waiting for more promising news about Iran’s beekeeping industry.
Matta also reiterated his gratitude to the Embassy of Slovenia in Iran for all its support in making the holding of the event possible.
Joint step toward eliminating hunger
Commenting on the same occasion in her speech, Slovenian Ambassador to Iran Kristina Radej said after over three years of diplomatic efforts by the Republic of Slovenia, the resolution declaring May 20 as World Bee Day was unanimously adopted within the Economic and Financial Committee of the UN General Assembly in New York on November 17, 2017.
She added the resolution and the declaration of World Bee Day was finally unanimously adopted on December 20, 2017, at the plenary meeting of the UN General Assembly.
Radej described the act as not only an exceptional acknowledgement for Slovenia, but a joint step toward the elimination of hunger and poverty and environmental conservation.
“Today, the message that we are all united in the care and protection for bees and other pollinators will be emphasized all over the world to remind every single one of us how dependent and how interconnected are our lives on and with this incredible beings. We hope that this will become an important tradition with which we will step up the necessary efforts for their preservation and, thus, contribute to a more sustainable agriculture and global food security.”
She expressed pride with the fact that Slovenia ranks among the bests in the world regarding the number of beekeepers per capita.
“Beekeeping is a way of life for tens of thousands of Slovenians. A bee, particularly the indigenous Carniolan honey bee, is part of the Slovenian national identity. Slovenia was also among the first states in Europe to prohibit the use of certain pesticides harmful for bees in its territory in 2011.”
Source: Iran Daily
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