By Claudia Wascher and Thomas Ings
Sipping a coffee on your way to work is a ritual most people take for granted without thinking about how the delicious coffee beans reached their cup. You probably know it comes from tropical regions. But what is less well-known is that coffee is the product of an incredible partnership between the birds and the bees.
A recent study researched how birds helped control pests and how bees helped pollinate coffee farms. The research showed how working with wildlife can help farmers make more money. But it is just one example of the benefits nature gives us that we take for granted.
Nature purifies the water we drink and the air we breathe, it helps control disease and nature reserves give us amazing spaces to relax and exercise. It also gives us direct financial benefits. For example, global crop pollination by bees and other pollinators such as birds is worth $195 billion (£160 million). Recent estimates show 75% of leading global food crops), such as potatoes, soybeans, and tomatoes, are dependent upon animal pollination.
A hot commodity
This includes coffee, an important tropical plant with a worldwide export value of US$24 billion in 2012. About 20-25 million households depend on coffee growing for their livelihoods, which includes traders, export managers, farmers and coffee shop baristas.
Although Arabica coffee (Coffea arabica) can self-pollinate, pollinators increase fruit set (when a flower transforms into a berry) size, and yield. Farmers often think of birds as a pest species, eating seeds and crops. But birds forage on the coffee berry borer (Hypothenemus hampei Ferrari), a small beetle which is one the most harmful pests to coffee crops.
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