Ecological intensification, or the improvement of crop yield through enhancement of biodiversity, may be a sustainable pathway toward greater food supplies. Such sustainable increases may be especially important for the 2 billion people reliant on small farms, many of which are undernourished, yet we know little about the efficacy of this approach. Using a coordinated protocol across regions and crops, we quantify to what degree enhancing pollinator density and richness can improve yields on 344 fields from 33 pollinator-dependent crop systems in small and large farms from Africa, Asia, and Latin America. For fields less than 2 hectares, we found that yield gaps could be closed by a median of 24% through higher flower-visitor density. For larger fields, such benefits only occurred at high flower-visitor richness. Worldwide, our study demonstrates that ecological intensification can create synchronous biodiversity and yield outcomes.

Background: When the natural pollinator's declines, beekeeping can contribute to the pollination services, assuring crop yields, and can also be used to strengthen the livelihoods through commercialization to increase economic revenue. Methods:A farmers' survey and field experiment were conducted on 2011 to assess the economics of beekeeping as pollination management practices adopted by the farmers of Chitwan district, Nepal. Samples of 75 respondents from the list of beekeeper farmers of Chitwan district were selected randomly. Information was obtained from individual respondents through a pretested questionnaire and group discussion. Furthermore, to assess the benefit of bee pollination 15 experimental plots were selected to see the effect of bee pollination on mustard crop yield.Results: From the study, the gross income (rupees/hives), productivity (rupees/man-day), average cost (rupees/ hives), and gross benefit (rupees/hives) as a result of keeping bees were found to be 4475.23, 1506.30, 2526.66, and 1948.57, respectively. The benefit-cost ratio of beekeeping was found to be significantly higher, at 1.8. The contribution of the bee pollination on the mustard crop production was found significantly higher than that on the mustard production without the insect pollination. Conclusions:This research finding will provide the new ways of thinking on the relationship between beekeeping and their importance on the crop production. The pollination shortage due to pollinator declines can be mitigated through the beekeeping which helps to uplift the sustainable livelihoods of the farmers through income generation.

Smallholder farmers are some of the poorest and most food insecure people on Earth. Their high nutritional and economic reliance on home‐grown produce makes them particularly vulnerable to environmental stressors such as pollinator loss or climate change which threaten agricultural productivity. Improving smallholder agriculture in a way that is environmentally sustainable and resilient to climate change is a key challenge of the 21st century. Ecological intensification, whereby ecosystem services are managed to increase agricultural productivity, is a promising solution for smallholders. However, smallholder farms are complex socio‐ecological systems with a range of social, ecological and environmental factors interacting to influence ecosystem service provisioning. To truly understand the functioning of a smallholder farm and identify the most effective management options to support household food and nutrition security, a holistic, systems‐based understanding is required. In this paper, we propose a network approach to understand, visualise and model the complex interactions occurring among wild species, crops and people on smallholder farms. Specifically, we demonstrate how networks may be used to (a) identify wild species with a key role in supporting, delivering or increasing the resilience of an ecosystem service; (b) quantify the value of an ecosystem service in a way that is relevant to the food and nutrition security of smallholders; and (c) understand the social interactions that influence the management of shared ecosystem services. Using a case study based on data from rural Nepal, we demonstrate how this framework can be used to connect wild plants, pollinators and crops to key nutrients consumed by humans. This allows us to quantify the nutritional value of an ecosystem service and identify the wild plants and pollinators involved in its provision, as well as providing a framework to predict the effects of environmental change on human nutrition. Our framework identifies mechanistic links between ecosystem services and the nutrients consumed by smallholder farmers and highlights social factors that may influence the management of these services. Applying this framework to smallholder farms in a range of socio‐ecological contexts may provide new, sustainable and equitable solutions to smallholder food and nutrition security. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.

Nepal has tremendous opportunities on the beekeeping due to the richness in the honeybee's species and the availability of plenty pasture diversity. There exist four native honeybee's species Apis florea, Apis dorsata, and Apis laboriosa are open nesting and Apis cerena halfway domesticated types. The beekeeping practices and production of the honey have been increased during the 10 years. Along with this, the natural honey export was also increased in recent years. The beekeeping in Nepal contributes to the economics boost up of the rural and marginalized landless farmers. Besides the economic contribution from the bees' products, beekeeping enhances the pollination services assuring the crop yields and helping to maintain the natural biodiversity from the Terai to the high Himalayans. Beekeeping gives the mutual benefits to both beekeeper and the crop farmers on the economic returns from the selling of the bee products and beehives and also increases the yields of the pollination-dependent crops by ensuring the efficient pollination services. These perspectives of beekeeping enhance the livelihoods of the farmers through the sustainable practices of beekeeping.

Beekeeping contributes to poverty reduction in many developing countries, and in addition, provides pollination services for sustainable crop production. In Nepal, management practices associated with beekeeping are poorly characterized, and so the potential for this sector to further contribute to livelihood development remains unclear. This study sought to examine and identify factors associated with production efficiency and financial profitability of beekeeping with the aim of enhancing economic gains for Nepali beekeepers. Our study included a sample of 150 respondents from more than twenty commercial beekeeping districts across the Terai and mountainous regions of Nepal. Profitability of beekeeping with the European honeybee (Apis mellifera) Linnaeus, 1758 (Hymenoptera: Apidae) and the Asian honeybee Apis cerana Fabricius, 1793 (Hymenoptera: Apidae) was quantified and disaggregated according to several variables, including hive-derived products produced, marketing strategy employed, number of beehives managed, and postharvest management practices. Our results showed that the different types of management practices adopted (such as number of beehives kept, colony multiplication, supplementary feeding, month of honey harvesting, and marketing approach) significantly influenced the productivity and economic profitability of beekeeping. Our results also revealed that professional supports, such as the availability of subsidies and training, were key factors to enhance productivity. As a whole, this study provides insight into the biological factors and management practices associated with higher economic returns from beekeeping. This work can help guide policymakers and professional support agencies to expand commercial beekeeping for sustainable livelihood development in Nepal and beyond.