ISCA TECHNOLOGIES, INC. — Department of Agriculture SBIR Phase I: 8.2

Description

When the average American sits down to a meal, it is likely that a portion of the food in front of him or her is the result of pollination by honeybees. Bee species pollinate 71 of the 100 crops that provide 90% of human food for 146 countries. Insect pollinators, as a whole, have an estimated global worth of $200 billion and the contribution of honeybee pollination cannot be overstated. Although their importance likely exceeds any monetary estimation, placing a price on managed honeybees allows their economic value to be quantified. The value of honeybee pollination to crop production in the U.S. is about $20 billion. Honeybee pollination increases crop production and quality for a wide variety of foods, including fruits, nuts, vegetables, legumes, oilseeds, and forage crops. Over the past decade, the number of honeybee colonies has been declining on a global scale; yet humans are now more dependent than ever on insect pollinators to ensure an adequate supply of food for a rapidly growing population.The monetary value of honeybees is derived largely from the success of the crops being pollinated. Effective pollination results in compact clusters of fruits or seeds, set uniformly across the entire cultivated area. Crop-specific examples of optimal pollination include: two or more muskmelons near the crown or base of the vine; apples developing mainly from the king (center blossom); larger and more abundant blueberry fruit settings per plant; or a high percentage of fully developed watermelons with the desired symmetry and weight. In the production of today's large monoculture crops, there is an extremely high demand for honeybees, and subsequently commercial beehives, over a period of just a few weeks across large geographical areas. During this short time span, the majority of flowers in the crop must be pollinated or significant yield losses may occur. The need for honeybees is especially crucial in areas where cool spring weather prevails, and pollination must take place within the few warm days that occur during bloom. This is often the situation for tree fruit production in the Eastern and Midwestern US. When honeybees are abundant, pollination happens quickly and helps growers, particularly in temperate areas, to avoid losses due to flower damage by frost.With the high demand for honeybees over a relatively short period of time, American fruit growers have increasingly relied on the services of itinerant beekeepers. Every spring, growers must pay this pre-production expense to have beehives moved into their plantings in an effort to increase the successful pollination of their crop. Despite these efforts, adequate pollination is not always achieved. In some instances, growers lose honeybees because instead of pollinating the intended crop, where care has been taken to avoid the use of pesticides and residues that might affect the bees, the bees might visit other unintended neighboring crops where pesticides might be in use (for example, this happens in the intersection of almonds, a crop that is extremely dependent on efficient pollination, and citrus, where pollination is unwanted because it generates fruit with seeds). In order to ensure optimal pollination and the prosperity of rural communities that depend on high fruit productivity, bee colony safety and management need to become an even greater priority.Although there are several commercially available products for attracting honeybees, they have proven to be largely ineffective in terms of attractiveness and/or field longevity. Due to their ineffectiveness, high cost and need of frequent reapplications, pollinator enhancers have not been fully adopted by growers. Innovative approaches are needed to meet the challenges of a shrinking beekeeping industry and resultant increases in honeybee rental fees.ISCA will develop a semiochemical formulation that will encourage honeybees to forage and pollinate in specific areas of the cultivated crop, for a fraction of w