Not only bees are responsible for this important task for food – Publimetro México

Around 25 crops – some of which are key to the Mexican diet – are in danger due to the latent threat against the pollinators (bees, flies, butterflies, hummingbirds, beetles and bats); these foods that require the function of insects, birds and even some mammals to achieve pollination are: tomato, chili, tomato, beans, squash, cocoa, avocado, coffee guava, plums, papaya peach, apple, pear, pepper, watermelon melon, cucumber, strawberry, blackberry, hawthorn, fig, cashew, mango and orange.

“Pollinators are crucial in the sexual reproduction of plants under natural conditions,” he said, Mauricio Quesada Avendano from the Institute of Research in Ecosystems and Sustainability and coordinator of the National Laboratory of Ecological Analysis and Synthesis of the National School of Higher Studies (ENES) in Morelia.

The researcher highlighted that there are more or less 300 thousand angiosperms that is, flowering plants on the planet. These evolved to produce fruits and seeds from the sexual reproduction. Essentially, pollen is what carries the sexual cells that fertilize the ovules of the female function of plants and from there the fruits and seeds.

“Virtually the majority of these 300,000 species of flowering plants require pollinators as essential vectors in this process: they transport pollen, that is, the male function deposits it on the female function of the flowers and then fertilization occurs. This maintains their genetic diversity on the planet, which turns out to be very important because it allows the regeneration of our ecosystems,” he explained.

According to the specialist, in addition to bees, there are many other species that perform this important function for food production.

“Flies are a very important group of pollinators, as are butterflies, hummingbirds, bats and moths. There are beetles that also perform this function in certain groups of plants, such as calla lilies and palm trees, for example. So there is a great diversity of pollinators on the planet that are specialized in different groups of plants. Therefore, we should not only consider bees as the most important, but think of them as a broad group,” he stressed.

He concluded by saying that a world without pollinators would mean a world without food diversity.

“Without blueberries, coffee, chocolate, cucumbers or many other foods. They also serve to alert us about new environmental risks, indicating the health of local ecosystems,” he concluded.

Major producers of fruits, vegetables and grains

México has a great diversity in terms of the production of various fruits, vegetables and grains. The producing states of tomato in México they are: Sinaloa, Sonora, Baja California, Nayarit, Jalisco, Michoacan, Guerrero, Oaxaca, Morelos and San Luis Potosi.

As regards cocoa, the largest producers are: Tabasco, Chiapas and Guerrero; while the production of coffee It occurs mainly in the states of Chiapas, Veracruz and Puebla.

Michoacán leads avocado production, followed by Jalisco and the State of México; in terms of bean production, the leading states in the country are: Zacatecas, Sinaloa and Durango.

As far as mango production is concerned, Sinaloa, Guerrero, Nayarit and Chiapas are leaders; while Veracruz, Tamaulipas and San Luis Potosí top the list as the main producers of the fruit.

Regarding guava production, Michoacán, Aguascalientes and Zacatecas lead the list, while for watermelon, the main producers are: Sonora, Veracruz and Jalisco, and finally the largest producers of Mexican strawberries are: Michoacán, Baja California and Guanajuato.

?Sinaloa the granary of México?

For years it has been spread that Sinaloa It is the granary of México due to its fertile land When there is enough water, up to 560 thousand hectares of corn are planted per year, according to reports from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

However, the central region of México, which includes the states of Aguascalientes, Colima, México City, Guanajuato, Hidalgo, Jalisco, State of México, Michoacan, Morelos, Nayarit, Queretaro, San Luis Potosi, Tlaxcala and Zacatecas, where approximately 60% of the country’s corn is grown, has challenged this title. Other major crops include wheat, vegetables, peanuts, strawberries and beans, generally grown by small communities and family businesses.