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The intensely cultivated farmlands of Upper Austria are becoming more colorful and less monocultural. 169 farmers have cultivated 68.3 km of flower strips alongside maize and soybeans.

These flower networks are certainly picturesque. More importantly, however, they serve as a year-round oasis for bees, butterflies and other pollinators. The availability of food, shelter and nesting sites for these species promote biodiversity and ecosystem functioning — thus making farmlands more sustainable in the long run.

Farmers need a large variety of seed mixtures to ensure that flowers bloom all year round. Different seeds have to be planted at different times to keep the flower strips vibrant throughout all four seasons.
This gift will pay for enough seeds to fill a football field with flowers. Your contribution will help offset the time, monetary, labor, and opportunity costs that Austrian farmers incur throughout the year to grow and maintain these flower pathways.

This is how money is used

A beautiful and bio-diverse countryside will be enjoyed by everyone.

Many farmers are already participating in this practice as they see the need for sustainable agri-environmental practices.

However, it takes 3-4 years for farmers to enjoy the benefits of the ecosystem services that pollinator species provide. Your contribution will help offset the costs they incur in the short-term — encouraging and incentivizing them to improve the quantity and quality of flower strips alongside their crops.

In collaboration with:

“If the bee disappeared off the face of the Earth, man would only have four years left to live.”
This quote is often attributed to Albert Einstein. Little more needs to be said.
Your gift will increase biodiversity and boost the population of flower pollinating insects in Upper Austria. Farmers can sustain high levels of food production while protecting the diversity of flora and fauna in their farmlands — a promising marriage of economic and environmental sustainability.

What more is there?
These flowers are growing for the one year participations:
Borretsch, Buchweizen, Inkarnatklee, Koriander, Kornblume, Kornrade, Leindotter, Malve, Mohn, Perserklee, Phazelia, Ringelblume, Sommerkümmel, Sonnenblume
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