The Integrated Crop Pollination Project

A Coordinated Agricultural Project Funded by the USDA Specialty Crop Research Initiative

Integrated Crop Pollination May be Key to Success with Many Michigan Crops

An international study revealing the importance of wild pollinators for production of fruits and vegetables is providing new insights that may help improve Michigan’s pollination-dependent crops… Read the full article posted by MSU Today

Plan Bee

Honeybees have been the first choice of growers across the United States to pollinate crops and improve the quality of their yields for nearly four centuries. Imported from Europe in the early years of North American colonization, honeybees became a…

Going Wild Could Improve Winged Workforce

Every spring in the United States, bees pollinate crops valued at about $14 billion. A Michigan State University professor and a team of scientists are using a five-year, $8.6 million grant from the United States Department of Agriculture to keep…

The 2016 Project ICP Annual Newsletter

Check out the newly released 2016 Project ICP newsletter for updates on our research project from the past year, snapshots from the field, grower and advisor spotlights, NASS survey updates, and more! If you’d like to receive this annual newsletter with news and updates…

Emily May February 5, 2016 Project ICP News And Press

Undergraduate REU Opportunity: Pollination services provided by native bees (Burlington, VT)

Posted January 2016 (Feb. 5th deadline): The Ricketts lab at the University of Vermont is seeking undergraduate applicants for summer research assistant positions in the lab. Motivated undergraduate students are encouraged to apply for the NSF-funded 10-week Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU)…

Leah Morin January 20, 2016 Project ICP News And Press

Graduate Assistantships Available at USDA-ARS Pollinating Insect Research Unit (Logan, UT)

Posted January 2016: The USDA-ARS Pollinating Insect Research Unit in Logan, Utah, is currently recruiting graduate students for both M.Sc. and Ph.D. programs at Utah State University. The PIRU is a national leader in pollinator research focused on native and…

Leah Morin January 20, 2016 Project ICP News And Press

Bee prepared: F&M professor, local farmer contribute to efforts to restore pollinator habitats

A scientific paper published by several Project ICP researchers two weeks ago showed that large parts of the US are at risk for a “pollinator mismatch” due to wild bee declines; bees are being lost in the farming regions where…

Leah Morin January 8, 2016 Project ICP News And Press

National Analysis of Wild Bee Abundance Highlights Areas of Concern

Read our Policy Brief: New Analysis of Wild Bee Abundance Highlights Areas of Concerns. In brief, the study highlights the following policy implications: • Counties with significant mismatch between crop pollination needs and wild bee abundance should be targeted for private and…

Leah Morin December 21, 2015 Project ICP Policy Briefs

Wild bee declines threaten US crop pollination

A new national assessment of the status and trends of U.S. wild bees estimates that wild bees declined in 23% of the contiguous U.S. between 2008 and 2013. The team of Project ICP researchers, led by Insu Koh at the University of…

Emily May December 21, 2015 Project ICP News And Press

Five New Articles on Pollinators from Penn State Extension

Members of Penn State’s Center for Pollinator Research, including Project ICP researcher Dr. Shelby Fleischer, and the Penn State Extension Vegetable and Small Fruit Team have collaborated to produce a five part series of Extension articles describing pollinators, pollinator threats and on-farm conservation strategies, including…

Leah Morin December 15, 2015 Project ICP Extension

Importance of pollinators for global nutrition

Taylor Ricketts (UVM, Project ICP research partner) and colleagues found that pollinators are essential for human health; pollinator dependent crops provide important micronutrients. Read a news article on this study and other studies linking pollinators to human health here: http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/123-a210/