In Ireland one third of our bee species are threatened with extinction. Begley’s is delighted to participate in the All- Ireland Pollinator Plan 2021 – 2025. This plan involves all of us, farmers, families, schools, businesses and government working together to ensure pollinators can survive and thrive.
As part of this plan we have already undertaken various pollinator and biodiversity actions. We have increased red clover and left more land in fallow. We have also reduced mowing across all sites to enable all areas return to wildflower habitats and introduce more bee cross pollination in our crops.
We plan to build on this initial work by rolling out plans to leave a percentage of land, based on acres farmed, in fallow. We also plan to increase our organic acres, reduce sprays on some crops where possible, which will further increase pollination. We also aim to roll out some indoor actions in 2022.
Our commitment to the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan is now part of our sustainability and biodiversity strategy across all arms and sites of our business. For 2022 our Origin Green targets and actions will be updated to include our actions being undertaken in this area.
Participating in the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan has led to a more uniform and targeted strategy across all our sites and areas of the business. We can now set overall targets, monitor and track outcomes that deliver better results for the environment.
Visit Pollinators.ie