World Bee Day strives to protect bees worldwide

Established by the United Nations, this year's theme "Bee engaged in pollinator-friendly agricultural production", calls upon action by the agriculture industry to better support pollinator-friendly agricultural practices, as well as highlight the key role bees play around the world.

Monash University Associate Professor Alan Dorin studies how to better track bee populations and utilise Artificial Intelligence to provide precise crop pollination and improve beehive health.

"Future farming using advanced AI and technology to monitor bee population and movement for precise pollination and tracking hive health, amongst other things, can improve management of crops and other natural resources," Associate Professor Dorin said.

"Technology can assist us to support and sustain the wild and native bee populations upon which our food security and ecosystem sustainability depend.

"To achieve this goal we must consider not only the local impacts of technology's application, but also the up-stream and down-stream costs and cascading impacts of technology development, manufacture, application and disposal."

READ MORE:

He said it was vital to study and protect bee biodiversity as it would ensure their future survival.

"If used cleverly, and carefully, technology can help to reveal the intricacies of native bees' interactions with ecosystems, without damaging them," he said.

"It's essential for technology developers and researchers to remember that development should not be our goal."

"Instead, our goal is to better understand, support, and improve our custodianship of natural biodiversity. Technology can play a role in this, but it must never be allowed to replace or diminish our responsibilities to organisms and ecosystems.