Little information exists about the occurrence, diversity, and status of pollinators in Malawi, or the influence of agroecological farming practices on pollination services throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Most farmers in Malawi are subsistence farmers growing more than one crop on less than one hectare of land. Agricultural extension workers are helping these farmers cope with challenges and improve their livelihoods through increased crop yields, but they have limited knowledge on the role of beneficial insects. Current extension efforts focus on fertilizer application, soil and water conservation measures, and pest management that relies heavily on synthetic pesticides. Agroecological interventions currently being tested in Malawi provide farmers with low-cost and sustainable pest control interventions, which have minimal negative effect on biodiversity. If farmers can also be shown that these interventions are beneficial to yield-increasing pollinators, the potential for farmers to adopt sustainable agroecological practices is high.

This collaborative initiative led by Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR) will bridge the gap between biodiversity data and farming practices by implementing a data portal for Malawian bee pollinators. This portal is the result of a JRS planning grant awarded to LUANAR in 2019, which developed partnerships and laid the groundwork for a multi-year effort to mobilize bee pollinator data and connect this knowledge to agricultural practices. The Malawi Biodiversity Portal will provide online access to pollinator data and house crop-pollinator-agroecological interventions interactions data. Major partners include the Farms4Biodiversity project with Soils, Food, and Healthy Communities (SFHC), a farmer-led organization that promotes agroecological practices to improve food security in Malawi. Technology partners include NugSoft Technologies and mHub, database and web portal developers; and bioinformatics consultants at Malawi University of Science and Technology (MUST), as well as consultants providing expertise in insect collection and identification.

The key objectives of the project are to create the database, portal, and mobile data collection application for a new Malawi Biodiversity Portal and to populate the Malawi Biodiversity Portal with crop-pollinator-agroecological interventions interactions data. The creation of a physical reference collection of bee pollinator species at LUANAR will create a national resource for future pollinators research and conservation. The digitization and publishing of this data, will begin with collecting geo-referenced data from 80 farms across three agroecological zones of Malawi. These farms are located in the northern, central, and southern regions of Malawi with half of the 80 farms implementing farmer-selected agroecological interventions, and the other half serving as the control sample.

Meetings with stakeholders, outreach activities, and training are integral to this project and will ensure this tool’s use and continued access to knowledge by farmers and in conservation planning. Training activities will cover data mobilization, pollinator identification, digitization, data cleaning, data publishing, and data for use.

With COVID-19 restricting travel and meeting with our grantees, JRS invited our projects to submit a short update for the JRS Board of Trustees. Though intended for an internal JRS audience, we loved these videos and share them here with permission. Enjoy!

1. MOUs between LUANAR and implementing partners.
2. A pollinator database and portal.
3. A mobile application for pollinator georeferencing.
4. An insect museum room at LUANAR for specimen storage.
5. At least 35,000 georeferenced pollinator specimens, 9,000 of which are identified to species level.
6. 4,500 digitized pollinator specimens from the reference collection published on the portal and GBIF.
7. A digital photo library on the portal.
8. 50 Pollinators of Malawi factsheets.
9. A pollinator identification course and curricula adapted to local needs available on the portal.
10. A metadata paper on pollinators of Malawi.
11. A report on the impact of different agroecological interventions on pollinator diversity on Malawi.
12. A policy brief to the Environmental Affairs Department and Department of Crops Development.

The Malawi Biodiversity Portal will help establish the relationship between pollinators and crop plants, access the impact of farm and crop management practices on pollinator ecology, and provide users with baseline data for making policy decisions. When farmers are armed with information on beneficial insects, they are more likely to make decisions to conserve them. This portal will mobilize pollinator data for Malawian farmers, as well as students, researchers, journalists, and policy makers, enabling bee pollinator biodiversity and agroecological interventions to be brought into farming practice decisions.

1. MoUs between LUANAR and implementing partners

Dr. Trust Kasambala Donga works as an entomologist at Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR). In collaboration with local and international partners, she has worked on projects evaluating the impact of agricultural practices on insect populations. She is principally interested in identification and assessment of pest control interventions that reduce insect pests on crops without harming beneficial organisms such as pollinators. Dr Kasambala Donga holds a PhD in Plant Sciences from Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Norway.

Malawi is a vibrant environment for biodiversity informatics with increasing interest in information technologies for conservation in academic institutions and government agencies.  Since 2016, JRS has sought projects on pollinators that made a connection between agricultural practices and pollinators status and biodiversity.  Several projects in our portfolio are collecting landscape use data along with pollinators data. This project is the first that is directly collaborating with a project with an experimental design that compares biodiversity on control farms and farms with agroecological practices.