Economic Value of Pollination

Pollination is an ecosystem service and a production practice. As an ecosystem service, wild pollinators pollinate many crops. As a production practice, social bee colonies are purchased or rented to supplement the “free” services of wild pollinators. The existence of these sale and rental practices indicates that there may already be insufficient numbers of wild pollinators to support the agriculture industry's pollination needs. As agriculture faces pollinator decline, assessments of potential economic losses are critical. The U.S. experienced large, unexplained losses of managed honey bee colonies during the winter of 2006-2007, leading to an investigation that identified a host of symptoms now known as Colony Collapse Disorder. CCD is thought to be caused by a combination of pathogens, parasites, pesticides (even at sub-lethal levels), weakened bee immune systems, poor nutrition and other environmental stressors. To determine the economic value of pollination services in Georgia, UGA agricultural and applied economists develop and apply a theoretical model based on the bioeconomic approach. They identify Georgia crops reliant on biotic pollination, collect quantitative production value data on goods and services rendered by pollination services, and use these data to estimate the economic value of pollination services in Georgia. The study shows the economic value of pollination to be substantial ($367 million), equivalent to 13 percent of the total production value of the crops studied and 3 percent of the total production value of Georgia's agricultural sector. A unique GIS analysis reveals an irregular pattern of vulnerability. While the counties displaying the highest economic values of pollination are clustered in southern Georgia, those with the highest dependency on pollinators in terms of their contribution to crop production value tend to be more dispersed throughout the state.