Sargodha:
Under a dry sky and Smoggy, a beekeeper in the province of Punjab of Pakistan carefully load boxes full of tens of thousands of bees in the rear of a truck.
Together will travel 500 kilometers (about 300 miles) in an increasingly desperate persecution of finding flowers with flowers, clean air and moderate temperatures for honey production as climate change and pollution threaten the industry.
“We move the boxes according to where the weather is good and the flowers bloom,” said Malik Hussain Khan to the AFP, standing in a field of oranges whose flowers arrived weeks at the end of February and lasted only a few weeks.
Pakistan beekeepers generally move seasonally to save their suffocating heat or ice cream loads.
The summers pass in the province of Northwest of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and winters in the central province of Punjab.
But climatic patterns are unpredictable by climate change, along with some of the worst contamination of the world, the beekeepers meaning must move more frequently and travel even more.
This winter was marked by level and dangerous Smog levels that the Government declared a national disaster. Research has found that air pollution can make it difficult for bees to local flowers.
The decreased rain, meanwhile, failed to clear the asphyxiated air and caused drought warnings for farmers.
“Almost half of my bees died when the Smog and the fog hit this winter because they could not fly. There was hardly any rain,” said Khan, who moved his bees as often as every few weeks in January and February.
The bees of the 27,000 Pakistan beekeepers once had a diverse foliage fed by reliable rains, offering a rich source of nectar.
Its honey is used in flu remedies, spray on sweets and occurs as gifts.
However, since 2022, the production of Pakistan honey has fallen 15 percent, according to the Honey Bee (HBRI) Research Institute of the Government in the Islamabad capital.
“Heavy rains and hail storms can destroy flowers, and erratic rains and high temperatures during the winter flowering season can prevent them from flourishing,” said Muhammad Khalid, a researcher at the institute.
“When the flowers disappear, the bees population decreases because they cannot find nectar, resulting in a reduced production of honey.”
Bees are threatened worldwide by changing climate patterns, intensive agricultural practices, the change in land use and pesticides.
Its loss threatens not only in honey trade, but also food security in general, with a third of the world’s food production depends on the pollination of bees, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization.
Pakistan’s bees once produced 22 honey varieties, but that has collapsed to 11 as the flowering seasons shorten. Three of the four species of honey bees are in danger.
“The places that used to be green for our bees to fly 30 years ago, they are no longer,” says the 52 -year -old Honey merchant, Sherzaman Momaan, who speaks with tenderness about his winged charges.
“We didn’t move as much as we do now.”
His hives were almost completely eliminated by 2010 floods in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, but believes that deforestation is the most significant change and long -term threat.
Yousaf Khan and his brother, based in Islamabad, have produced honey for 30 years, moving short distances around Punjab neighbor to catch the best flowers. “Now, we reach Sindh (province) due to warmer temperatures and to escape extreme climatic conditions,” Khan told AFP, referring to areas of up to 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) away.
“Bees are like babies, they need a good atmosphere, a good environment and an adequate meal to survive.”
Moving bees comes with their own risks.
“If it’s very hot, or if the distance is too long, there is the possibility that some bees can die. My bees has happened before,” Khan explained.
On long trips, they must also be fed with artificial foods because they cannot produce honey while traveling.
