Pollination ecosystem service contributes tremendously to food security; however, little is known about the farmers’ awareness of the ecosystem service to ensure conservation of pollinators. This study determined farmers’ perceptions, knowledge, attitudes toward bees, and pollination in a maize-producing region of Zimbabwe using semistructured questionnaires (N = 828). Generalized linear model and logit regressions were used to determine factors influencing farmers’ ability to identify bees, knowledge of pollination, and fear toward bees, respectively. Identification of bees was positively related to education, years in farming, and negatively related to fear toward bees (p < .001). Fear toward bees was influenced by gender, knowledge of bee attack fatalities, and perception of the importance of bees (p < .001). The majority of respondents (67%) confirmed knowledge of pollination (χ2 = 96.043, p < .001), and the probability of knowing pollination was higher for those who depended on media compared with extension and school education as a source of farming information (p < .001). Our findings suggest that to improve bee conservation, farmers should be made more aware of the diverse bee fauna, specifically regarding their benefits as pollinators compared with the few dangers (resulting from stings) in order to reduce fear and increase willingness to conserve bees. Bee awareness programs need to be accessible to women, youth, and those with less formal education as they exhibited the least knowledge. Our findings also support evidence showing that extension officers should consider various media options for the effective dissemination of information to the different target audiences.

中文翻译：

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津巴布韦玉米产区农民对授粉和蜜蜂的知识和态度：对传粉媒介保护的影响

授粉生态系统服务对粮食安全做出了巨大贡献；然而，农民对生态系统服务以确保保护传粉媒介的意识知之甚少。本研究使用半结构化问卷（N = 828）确定了津巴布韦玉米产区农民对蜜蜂的看法、知识、态度和授粉。分别使用广义线性模型和logit回归确定影响农民识别蜜蜂能力、授粉知识和对蜜蜂的恐惧的因素。蜜蜂的识别与教育、农业年限呈正相关，与对蜜蜂的恐惧呈负相关（p < .001）。对蜜蜂的恐惧受到性别、对蜜蜂袭击死亡人数的了解以及对蜜蜂重要性的看法的影响 (p < .001)。大多数受访者 (67%) 确认了解授粉 (χ2 = 96.043, p < .001)，与将推广和学校教育作为农业信息来源相比，依赖媒体的人了解授粉的可能性更高（ p < .001）。我们的研究结果表明，为了改善蜜蜂保护，农民应该更多地了解不同的蜜蜂动物群，特别是将它们作为传粉媒介的好处与少数危险（由蜇伤引起）相比，以减少恐惧并提高保护蜜蜂的意愿。女性、青年和那些受过较少正规教育的人需要了解蜜蜂意识计划，因为他们表现出的知识最少。