Hive-Tech is an innovative device capable to improve the physiological and activity status of the colony and provides easy-to-understand suggestions on how to optimize the use of medical treatments and nourishment, manage the nomadism of hives and the beekeeping practices.
In addition, the pollinator add-on will help to achieve the objectives proposed in the European Green Deal:
- Preserving and restoring ecosystems and biodiversity, and
- Reducing the impact of farming while feeding a fast-growing world population
Environmental impact:
Bees are essential for food production and preserving environmental biodiversity. Their decay is a serious threat for the ecosystem since different plant species risk to disappear without insect pollination. Expected project results, when complemented by the pollination platform – will expectedly lead to:
1- About 111,000 beehives protected, increase in bee population by estimated 1 billion, mortality decreased by 20%.
2- Promotion of organic-farming practices: the product will help pollinate 1.6 trillion flowers,
3- Increase in pollination of roughly 212,000 hectares fostering growth of numerous plant species and absorption of more CO2 from the atmosphere.
4- 30% increase in fruit-and- vegetable production (+1.9 million tons of production over 5 years).
5- Sustainable pollination and pesticide-free farming, providing an incentive for farmers to reserve 10,000 hectares as pesticide-free zones.
Economic impact:
DSS functionalities and algorithms enable beekeepers to increase productivity by enhancing honey yield curtailing losses due to bee mortality and wasted trips. Farmers benefit of a higher crop productivity achieved through sustainable pollination:
1- Increasing beekeepers’ yearly revenues by at least 350 € per hive.
2- The total value of additional food production enabled by our sustainable pollination service in the EU is estimated in € 24 billion.
Societal impact: The initiative creates new jobs in the beekeeping, IT, electronics, farming, financial, and sales & marketing sectors. Moreover, natural pollination leads to an improvement in food supply security and crop quality.
1- Estimated 1,000 new jobs in the value chain, due to the increase of profitability of the EU beekeeping sector.
2- Empowerment of local beekeeping communities (14,000 beekeepers) ensuring them additional revenue stream.
