The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations estimates the world's population will reach 9.1 billion by 2050. This underscores the need to grow more food to feed such a huge population. As nature will have it, humans need the participation of other living organisms to make this happen. Hence, animal pollinators, which include insects (bees, butterflies, wasps, moths and beetles, among others) and birds, are important parts of our ecosystem.
As a child, I remember walking through flowering plants that were grown in pots around my home in Lagos, Nigeria. I would pick some sweet-smelling, edible ones to make juice. Bees and other insects enjoy these flowers too and feed on the nectar – a sweet fluid secreted by flowers. In the process of sucking nectar, they help pollinate plants and make food available.
