Birds and Bees Help Boost Coffee Crops Growth

A new study involving real-world experiments at 30 coffee farms has found that coffee fruit health and production is dramatically improved with the increased presence of both birds and bees.

The research underscores the need to support agroforestry systems in coffee farming — as opposed to deforested monocrop systems — in order to support biodiversity, plant health, and potentially producer incomes.

Led by researchers from the Costa Rica-based international agricultural research agency CATIE and from the University of Vermont, the study showed that coffee plants produced the healthiest beans and volumes when birds and bees were working in tandem, the former as pest controllers and the latter as pollinators.

Although a 2014 study in Tanzania found similar benefits, the research team said this was one of the first studies to explore how the combined environmental benefits of birds and bees compare with their individual benefits.