Intersections between rural livelihood security and animal pollination in Anolaima, Colombia

Abstract In the tropics, the interdependence between animal pollinators and smallholders is imperiled by the expansion of industrial agriculture. We discuss some of the intersections between animal pollination and agrarian change through an empirical case study of Anolaima, formerly considered “the fruit capital of Colombia”. The paper draws on 22 months of field research that included surveys with 320 households and more detailed interviews and participant observation with 16 focal families. Agrarian change has directly and indirectly driven the declines of animal pollinators necessary to the production of a large proportion of foods with high nutritional value, increasing the socio-ecological vulnerability of rural people. We describe an ironic and vicious cycle of inequality in Anolaima, where smallholders—especially older farmers and large families with small farms—once benefitted from nutritionally-rich, animal pollinated foods grown on their diverse agricultural plots. Now their agricultural production is threatened by pollinator declines driven by agroindustrial practices, which are conducted by wealthier households who secure food access by purchasing foods that include fruits dependent on animal pollination formerly grown locally. These dynamics leave low-income farmers surrounded by simplified, chemical-laden landscapes inhospitable to the bees upon which their agricultural livelihoods depend; and faced with food insecurity, unable to afford or access the culturally important foods they used to cultivate. We conclude with a discussion of the significance of traditional, diversified smallholder agriculture, its contribution to a large fraction of food consumed worldwide, and its role in biodiversity conservation in rural landscapes.