WATCH - Robotic bees vs urban beekeeping: Meet an Urban beekeeper in Cape Town

It plays out like a scene in a sci-fi movie: all the world's bees are dead and food production is about to collapse. Humans, realising they're responsible, turn to what they do best: building a machine.

We're not quite there, but bees are declining at a rapid rate, putting pollination - and food production - at risk.

Now a university in Japan has released the world's first man-made drone to transport pollen between flowers.

According to inventor Eijiro Miyako, the drone is 4cm wide and weighs only 15g. It is manually controlled and covered in horsehair coated with gel.

When it comes into contact with a flower, pollen grains stick to the gel and rub off on the next flower visited.

Bee colonies around the world have declined by between 30% and 70% over the past few years as a result of pesticides, land-clearing, climate change and disease.

Many countries have seen colony collapse disorder, where the majority of worker bees disappear, leaving the ecosystem in disarray.

South Africa is no exception. Bee decline has not been fully mapped but according to a statement by the University of the Witwatersrand, "declining bee colonies are putting industry worth R20-billion at risk".

WATCH Robotic bees vs urban beekeeping:

This includes the Western Cape's fruit industry, "which has more than half of the country's 77,800 hectares of fruit farms" in a province that "has reportedly lost more than 40% of its bees".

But should we be building robots that do bees' work?

Ames Dhai, director of the Steve Biko Centre for Bioethics at Wits, expressed concern over the replacement of such valuable insects with technology.

"The real problem is that we just don't care enough about the environment.

"We should be addressing the problem of the declining bees rather than turning to technology. We just don't know if the new technology is environmentally friendly and what the consequences of using alternatives to bees would be."

The common-sense approach, she said, was to change behaviour and work towards a recovering bee population.

One could "make a positive argument for the robot" if bee colonies declined to the extent that food security was threatened, but if it was a case of the "fat getting fatter" with the focus on profit margins rather than food security, it served no purpose.

Lucas Johnson-Barker, whose family have been bee-farming for over a century, said: "In our modern society, people are cut off from the production of fruit and vegetables. They don't realise that bees are crucial for pollination, and it is only grains that can use the wind.

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"The robotic bee is impressive, but not nearly as impressive as millions of years of evolution and the ways in which bees have adapted to different environments."

Warren Maroun, a professor of accountancy at Wits and author of the South African chapter in The Business of Bees, pointed to the business disaster associated with the decline of bees.

"If scientists are saying there is a problem with declining bee populations, that poses an immediate and serious business risk for our production industry," he said.

Ashley Epstein, an environmental entrepreneur who sells raw honey, said everyone harnessing products from bees should also be invested in revitalising colonies.

For every jar of honey sold, he puts money towards a bee sanctuary. "As humans, we like to harness their products. But they are incredibly intelligent and co-operative creatures who work out of a sense of love. They have a hive mentality, and when they go out to forage for new food, they come back and do a waggle dance that signals where the food is."

Many people saw bees only in terms of their products, but if they disappeared, as Alfred Einstein said, "human beings would only survive for four years at most".

Although Epstein saw the benefit of developing a drone, he would "hate to live in a world 20 years from now where all the bees have gone and technology is doing their work".

sub_head_start City bees thrive in urban hives sub_head_end

Lucas Johnson-Barker's family has farmed bees for over a century.

Now the 19-year-old Capetonian is taking the sting out of the collapse in bee colonies by spreading urban beekeeping, which involves installing beehives above flats, in private gardens, office blocks and malls.

"This can bring the bees back and help reverse their decline," said Johnson-Barker.

It also helps spread out the hives, which reduces the burden of diseases.

According to a study by the Union of French Apiarists, "urban bees are healthier and more productive than their country cousins. They enjoy higher temperatures and a wider variety of plant life for pollination, while avoiding ill-effects of pesticides."

They are also able to filter out city pollution.

It cost between R2,500 and R5,000 to get started, and after that the bees "for the most part take care of themselves", said Johnson-Barker said.

"They are good for your garden and fruit and veg patches."

farbert@timesmedia.co.za