There aren’t enough honeybees for ever-growing agricultural needs, so BloomX invented mobile units that bio-mimic the job of the bee.  Colony collapse disorder, a phenomenon where bees die for mysterious reasons, caused alarm in recent decades and spurred a flurry of “save the bees” campaigns — because honeybees are needed to pollinate the plants that provide our food.

 

But the bigger problem, according to Emily Speiser, VP of marketing for BloomX, is that honeybees, which have become the default bee for pollination in commercial agriculture because they’re easier to transport and manage — is that they aren’t as efficient as wild bees in pollinating specific fruits and vegetables like blueberries and avocados.

 

In addition, says Speiser, there aren’t enough honeybees as the world’s food needs grow.

Quoting figures from the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, Speiser states that since 1961, agricultural land has expanded by 600% and at the same period, the number of managed honeybee hives has expanded by only 83%. So, the supply and demand problems arise.

 

BloomX is combating the honeybee population crisis with robo-bees. The company, founded in 2019 in the small agricultural village of Rishpon where CEO Thai Sade once lived, developed robotic tools that pollinates as efficiently as a wild bee and without the risks involved with honeybees.  Robo-bees can bypass limitations introduced by some countries on “foreign” bees. Colombia, for example, prohibits bringing in bumblebees because they are not native and can harm the local ecosystem, Speiser explains.

Interested may kindly contact the undersigned at the Israeli Trade and Economic Mission, Consulate General of Israel to South India, in Bengaluru:

Email: Veshalakshe.Gajaraj@israeltrade.gov.il

Phone: +91-80-49406517

 

Source: Israel21c