The Impact of Monoculture Farming on Bees
Research increasingly shows that agricultural landscapes dominated by monocultures can support fewer and less diverse bee communities than landscapes containing more diverse crops and natural vegetation.
What Studies Show
A 2019 study in southeastern Mexico directly compared monocultures, polycultures, and pastures across 18 sites. Researchers recorded 127 bee species and found that polycultures and pastures had significantly greater bee species richness than monocultures. The study concluded that lower-intensity agricultural systems and landscapes with more forest supported greater bee diversity.
Research in the U.S. Midwest has produced similar findings. A longitudinal study in an agricultural region dominated by corn and soybean production found that wild-bee communities were less species-rich in landscapes with a high proportion of crop production. Woodland and grassland habitat were associated with greater bee richness, particularly among rarer and more specialized species. The researchers concluded that large-scale monocultures had a greater impact on bee communities than the presence of small honey-bee apiaries.
Another study followed honey-bee colonies in a landscape dominated by corn and soybeans. The colonies experienced a short period of growth when soybean fields were flowering, followed by a much longer period of limited forage. Several measures of bee health declined during this period. When the bees had access to native prairie vegetation, those declines were reversed.
A global analysis of 39 crop systems also found that bee abundance and species richness were generally higher in diversified fields and landscapes with more high-quality habitat. The researchers specifically noted that maintaining habitat around farms and improving agricultural management could help offset the effects of intensive monoculture agriculture.
More Flowers Does Not Always Mean Better Habitat
Monoculture can create an unusual situation. When a crop such as sunflower or soybean is flowering, it can provide an enormous amount of food at once and temporarily attract large numbers of bees.
But when flowering ends, much of that food disappears.
A study of sunflower monocultures in California found that mass-flowering crops increased bee abundance, but higher bee abundance was associated with greater parasite presence when there were few non-crop flowers available. The researchers concluded that monoculture alone cannot provide the resources needed to support healthy bee communities.
This creates a feast-and-famine cycle: abundant food for a short period, followed by a shortage of diverse floral resources.
Why Diversity Matters
Bees need more than flowers. They need a continuous supply of different pollen and nectar sources, nesting sites, and places to shelter and reproduce.
Large monocultures can remove wildflowers, hedgerows, grasslands, and other habitats that provide these resources. Pesticides can add another pressure.
A 2025 study analyzing 681 crop fields across three continents found that both pesticide hazard and the loss of semi-natural habitat were associated with reductions in wild-bee abundance and diversity.
The evidence therefore does not suggest that monoculture is the only reason bees are declining. Rather, large-scale monoculture can simplify agricultural landscapes and interact with other pressures, including pesticides, habitat loss, disease, parasites, and climate change.
What Can We Do?
Supporting bees is not only the responsibility of farmers. Homeowners, gardeners, communities, businesses, and local governments can all help.
Plant native flowers that bloom at different times of the year.
Leave some areas natural instead of heavily manicuring every space.
Plant trees, shrubs, and hedges for food and shelter.
Avoid unnecessary pesticide use.
Protect meadows, grasslands, and other natural areas.
Support farms that maintain diverse crops and natural habitat.
Create pollinator gardens in yards, balconies, schools, and community spaces.
The research points to a simple principle: a landscape that produces one crop for a few weeks is not necessarily a landscape that can support pollinators throughout the year.
Adding diverse vegetation and protecting natural habitat can help turn agricultural landscapes from seasonal food sources into places where bees can actually live.
Sources
J. E. Perfecto et al. / Biological Conservation (2019)
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2019.04.025
Agroecosystem landscape diversity shapes wild bee communities independent of managed honey bee presence (2022)
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167880921005302
Dolezal et al. (2019), PNAS
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6911205/
Kennedy et al. (2013), Ecology Letters
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ele.12082
Mallinger et al. (2021)
Mass-flowering monoculture attracts bees, amplifying parasite prevalence
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8511775/
Pesticides and habitat loss additively reduce wild bees in crop fields (2025), Nature Ecology & Evolution
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-025-02924-z
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Protecting Bees and Other Pollinators from Pesticides
https://www.epa.gov/pollinator-protection
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Pollinators
https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/conservation-basics/natural-resource-concerns/animals/pollinators
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