Relationship between Profitability and Sustainability in a Sequential Production Context: The Case of Migratory Beekeeper

Abstract

Plants flower in succession throughout the year and beekeepers can move their colonies from one forage site to another to meet the sequential demand for pollination services and/or to produce honey. A part of the colony’s production time is spent on each forage site in the period when the crop or wild vegetation covering it is in flower. The total period covered by the sequence of sites, including the base site, must be equal to or less than the duration of the honeybee colony’s annual biological cycle. The migratory beekeeper draws up viable sequences of forage sites and calculates their profitability levels. Variations in the profitability of forage sites which alter the composition of the sequence, affecting provision of the non-marketed ecosystem pollination services impact the biodiversity of the pollinated plants with trickle-down effects on sustainability. In the case of migratory beekeeper, there is, therefore, a sequential relationship between profitability and sustainability.