Pollinators Sustain Nutrition and Income for Rural Nepali Farmers

The 2026 *Nature* study led by ecologist Tom Timberlake (University of York) followed 776 smallholder households in western Nepal for a year. Researchers recorded daily food intake and surveyed insects on surrounding farms, linking each pollinator species to the crops it visited and the nutrients those crops supplied.

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Native honeybees and hoverflies supplied >20 % of vitamin A, vitamin E and folate, and pollinator-dependent crops generated ~44 % of farmer income. Honeybee numbers have dropped ~50 % in a decade. If declines persist, vitamin A and folate intake could fall 7 % by 2030 and a total pollinator loss could cut income by ~50 % and those nutrients by 20 %. Planting wildflowers, adding nesting sites and reducing pesticides could boost income up to 30 % and lift 9 % out of deficiency.

NPRNPRPollinators Boost Nutrition, Income in Vulnerable Communities

Because three-quarters of the region’s residents rely on subsistence farming, reduced pollination threatens food security, increases malnutrition risk—especially for children and pregnant women—and deepens poverty.

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The authors say protecting pollinator habitats is a cost-effective public-health strategy and recommend wildflower strips and bee-nesting structures in extension programs. Agricultural economist Kelvin Mulungu (International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center) says biodiversity benefits income, nutrition and health for the most vulnerable. They also urge policymakers to treat pollinator services as natural capital.

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Ecologist Taylor Ricketts (University of Vermont) cautions that assuming pollinator declines cause proportional crop yield losses oversimplifies a more complex field relationship.

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The proportional-yield assumption adds uncertainty to the projected 50 % income loss and 20 % nutrient decline, highlighting the need for experiments to test pollinator-yield links across crops and climates.

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• “TOM TIMBERLAKE: And so that link between the biodiversity around them and their health, their nutrition, their livelihoods is very, very direct.” — Tom Timberlake, Ecologist, University of York

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• “Conserving biodiversity is a public health investment. And not only a statistically significant one, but a substantial one,” — Taylor Ricketts, Ecologist, University of Vermont

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• “Biodiversity isn't just about saving bees or wild animals. It's for the benefit of humans and sometimes the most vulnerable populations,” — Kelvin Mulungu, Agricultural Economist, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center

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• “a rounding error, it's not a little effect. It is really in the ball game in keeping people healthy.” — Taylor Ricketts, Ecologist, University of Vermont

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• “And over 20% of people's vitamin A and folate intake.” — Tom Timberlake, Ecologist, University of York

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Researchers propose pilot projects installing pollinator-friendly habitats on smallholder fields, monitoring health and income, and urging governments to embed pollinator support in rural development and nutrition policies.

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