The National Food Safety Agency and the National Association of Beekeepers of the Republic of Moldova, with the support of USAID’s High Value Agriculture Activity in Moldova, started to pilot the bee protection application “Beeprotect” (www.beeprotect.md), the Agency has announced.
Ion Maxim, president of the National Association of Beekeepers, has told IPN that “Beeprotect” is a beekeeper-farmer communication application designed to protect bee colonies from poisoning with phytosanitary products and pesticides.
“Beeprotect” was thought up to help improve communication between beekeepers and agricultural producers. In accordance with Moldova’s legislation, the producers are obliged to inform the local administration before they start to spray crops with phytosanitary products and pesticides, while the local public authorities must inform local beekeepers about the planned spraying so that these keep the bees closed in the period to avoid mass positioning among bees. Nevertheless, this mechanism does not work and up to 300,000 bees in a family are annually poisoned all over the country, stated Ion Maxim.
He noted that “Beeprotect” enables agricultural producers to introduce data about the planned spraying – date, hour and type of spraying product – using a smartphone or a computer, at least two days before the planned event. “These data immediately reach all the beekeepers who installed the application and own beehives on an area of 7 km of the sprayed lot (maximum distance flown by a bee). This way beekeepers can learn beforehand about the spraying planned nearby and can take measures to protect the bees that day. The agricultural producers, for their part, can see the number of hives within an area of 7 km (not yet their location),” said Ion Maxim.
Initially, the application “Beeprotect” is piloted in Ialoveni district, in July-December 2022 and will be then piloted in Călărași district and later will be extended nationwide.
As from January 1, 2023, the registration and dissemination of data through “Beeprotect” will be mandatory for beekeepers and farmers.
