The rains have come to Kumasi and flower and insect sampling has begun! Alma and Sarah travelled to Kumasi to meet up with the field team again. The farms are just starting to move towards peak flowering, ready for the eDNA work to start, and preliminary sticky trapping found some Ceratopogonidae possible pollinators.
The coming months will be busy as the team scramble to collect flowers for eDNA extraction, and insect data about the communities present on farms of different types, and in different locations within farms. We are particularly interested in how shade levels affect the spatial distribution of insects over the year.
The (IP)-EPIC project has commenced!
The team met in Kumasi, Ghana to discuss approaches, resources and sites. They were fortunate enough to get out into the field and visit some wonderful cocoa farms around Bobiri forest and beyond.
The team also had a meeting with farmers near Bobiri to introduce the project and understand farmers' perceptions of the issues. The meeting was planned for around 30-40 farmers, but in the end around 80 attended, and provided some excellent input and enthusiasm!