Diversity pays in crop pollination

Pollination is an often overlooked but large cost factor in crop production . In spite of the high diversity of flowers, which requires an adequate div ersity of pollinators, almost all animal pollination is simplistically ascr ibed to the manageable but often less efficient pollinator, the European ho neybee, Apis mellifera L. In the case of poor pollination by honeybees, a n umber of costly techniques is applied to enforce fruit set-often with poor results. Finally, growers may resort to hand pollination, which greatly rai ses production costs. Knowledge of the appropriate pollinator is already av ailable in many cases, however. This Is demonstrated in this paper with exa mples spanning the whole range of pollination syndromes. To make this knowl edge accessible, an expert-based Internet-accessible database is suggested.