Honeybees play an essential economic role in the pollination of crops. On the other hand, agrochemical pesticides, which are scattered over large areas of crops, fruit groves, forests and other environments for the control of insect pests, weeds, vermin and plant diseases poses a great threat to honeybee colonies worldwide. Pesticide refers to a wide range of compounds including insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, plant growth regulators etc. Pesticide poisoning of honeybees is increasing in recent years, and beekeepers also losing their colonies due to unwise use and improper practice of pesticides.

Majority of pesticides registered for agricultural production do not pose significant risks to honey bees, however recent developments indicate that combination of certain chemicals, in particular insecticides and acaricides with fungicides or mixtures of acaricides, is more toxic to bees than the individual compounds on their own. There are other major threats to declining honeybee populations in the world, such as:

• Climate change.
• Habitat loss and fragmentation.
• Invasive plants and bees.
• Low genetic diversity.

However, agrochemical poisoning, lack of management practice and poor communication between agro-industrial companies and beekeepers are top challenges for the beekeeping industry.

Our proposed Beekeeping Alert System in Georgia offers instant notification for spray events.

Farmers will give advance notification of a spray event (at least 48 hours prior) to the beekeepers registered in the system’s database. Users will be able to select product name or active ingredient when they enter an event. Beekeepers have to map their hives in the system to receive notifications & alerts. Monitoring the locations of hives and fields with BAS will ensure they are in genuine locations within 3km.

Technology used in BAS are very common: any smartphone with 3G/4G cellular network connection and GPS function are all that is needed.

Currently F. Benton Association members & supporters are developing joint project of BAS software.