On Sunday, for the fifth year in a row, attention is paid to the day of biological diversity proclaimed by the UN, with events around the country. The whole of Sweden is blooming is a collaborative project between farmers, business actors and Hushållningssällskapen, which in recent years has spread like wildfire through Sweden.
Many bee species are endangered, which has a negative impact on the environment and biodiversity. This worries the country’s farmers who want to be part of reversing the trend.
Unused field strips
In order to create more flowering fields and thus benefit pollinating insects such as bumblebees and bees, farmers are given seeds to sow in unused field strips, often on the outskirts of the crops.
– It can be said that it is a help to self-help, we also need more pollinators for food production. It is not only a way to help the species for the intrinsic value of the species, but also to help ourselves. There will be larger harvests if we have good conditions for pollination, says Markus Hoffman who is an expert on soil and water issues at LRF.
In 2021, approximately 700 hectares of flowering field edges were sown by more than 700 farmers and this year the goal is to reach 1,000 hectares of flowers in the arable landscapes, which according to LRF’s forecasts will succeed.
Good for bumblebees
The seed mixtures contain both annual and perennial flowers such as honey herb and buckwheat, fragrant and blood clover and sunflowers in the southern parts of the country. Crops that are all good for bumblebees, but also fast to grow and keep away weeds.
– The flower projects also have an aesthetic function because the arable strips often lie along roads and become a kind of shop window for the farmer, says Markus Hoffman.
To avoid having their crops trampled on, a farmer has created a selfie box at the rapeseed and flower field. Press image.
nh2-general