CANBERRA, July 19 (Xinhua) -- Australian honey bee farmers are running out of food supply to keep up with the demand for crop pollinators, the industry's peak body has warned.
Trevor Weatherhead, executive director of the Australian Honey Bee Industry Council, on Thursday called for greater forage access in national parks to ensure bees had enough nectar and pollen.
The spike in demand for pollinating bees has been driven by the booming number of almond plantations in southern Australia with an extra 10,000 hectares of almond trees planted since 2016.
"At the present time there is probably just enough to go around," Weatherhead told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
"The biggest issue facing beekeepers in Australia today is that resource access and security of that access."
Australia's almond production is expected to reach 120,000 tons annually by 2025.
"The almond industry is totally dependent on the honey bee industry for pollination, as our varieties need to be cross-pollinated," Ross Skinner, chief executive of the Almond Board of Australia, told the ABC.
"Access to floral resources to build up hive numbers is something the almond industry is very supportive of."
Katja Hogendoorn, a professor from the University of Adelaide who is researching what crops farmers can plant to support pollination, encouraged almond farmers to plant a wide variety of native plants to feed the pollinators.
"What we show is when there is native vegetation around the crop, that the grower benefits with increased yields," she said.
