SARGODHA: Under a dry, smoggy sky, a beekeeper in Pakistan`s Punjab province carefully loads boxes filled with tens of thousandsofbees ontothe back ofatruck.

Together they will travel 5001cm in an increasingly desperate chase to find flowering plants, clean air and moderate temperatures for honey production as climate change and pollution threaten the industry.

`We move the boxes according to weather conditions where the flowers bloom,` Malik Hussain Khan informs AFP, standing in a field of orange trees whose blossoms arrived weeks late in February and lasted only for a few weeks.

Pakistan`s beekeepers typically move seasonally to save their bees from tough weather conditions, especially freezing cold.

Summers are spent in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and the winters in central Punjab province. But weather patterns made unpredictable by climate change coupled with some of the worst pollution in the world -mean the beekeepers must move more frequently and travel further.

This winter was marked by soaring, hazardous smog levels that the government declared a national disaster.

Research has found air pollution can make it harder for bees to locate flowers.

Diminished rainfall, meanwhile, failed to clear the choking air and triggereddrought warnings for farmers.

`Almost half of my bees died when the smog and fog hit this winter because they could not fly. There was hardly any rain, says Khan, who moved his bees as frequently as every few weeks in January and February.

Honey varieties plummet The bees of Pakistan`s 27,000 beekeepers once had diverse foliage fed by reliable rainfall, offering a rich source of nectar.

Their honey is used in local flu remedies, drizzled over sweets and given as gifts.

Since 2022, however, Pakistan`s honey production has dropped 15pc, according to the government`s Honey Bee Research Institute (HBRI) in Islamabad.

`Heavy rainfall and hailstorms can destroy the flowers, and erratic rainfall and high temperatures during the winter flowering season can stop them from blooming, says Muhammad Khalid, a researcher at the institute.

`When the flowers disappear, the bee population declines because they cannot find nectar, resulting in reduced honey production.

Bees are threatened globally by changing weather patterns, intensive farming practices, land-use change and pesticides.

Their loss threatens not just the honey trade but food security in general, with a third of the world`s food production dependent on bee pollination, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation.

Pakistan`s bees once produced 22 varieties of honey but that has plummeted to 11 as flowering seasons shorten. Three of the country`s four honeybee species are endangered.`The places that used to be green for our bees to fly 30 years ago are no longer there, says 52-year-old honey trader Sherzaman Moman, who speaks with tenderness about his swarms of bees.

`We didn`t move around then as much as we do now.` His hives were almost entirely wiped out by 2010 floods in Khyber Pakhtunlchwa but he believes deforestation is the most significant long-term change and threat.

Yousaf Khan and his brother, based in Islamabad, have been producing honey for 30 years, moving short distances around neighbouring Punjab to catch the best blooms.

`Now, we go as far as Sindh for warmer temperatures and to escape extremeweather conditions,` Khan says, referring to areas up to 1,000km away.

`Bees are like babies, they need a good environment, good surroundings, and proper food to survive.

`Fight and kill` Moving the bees comes with its own risks.

`If the weather is very hot, or if the distance is too long, there is a chance that some bees might die. It has happened to my bees before,` Khan explains.

On long trips, they must also be fed artificial food because they cannot produce honey while travelling.

Moving so often is expensive for beekeepers in a country where fuel prices have risen dramatically in recent years. And beekeep-ers seel(ing better weather can face harassment if they set up in areas without permission from the landlords.

On barren land outside Chamkanni in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gul Badshah watches helplessly as bees appear and disappear from dozens of boxes on a fruitless search for flowers.

`They fight and kill each other if the weather conditions do not suit them,` he says.

Badshah, whose boxes were also washed away in floods in 2010, and again in 2022, has given up travellinglong distances.

`There is no proper space to be found. We do not know where else to go.

Keeping bees cool, the ongoing battle Some hope is offered by new technology intended to keep bees cool, addressing the problem of how extreme temperatures affect the insects if not their food source.

Abdullah Chaudry, a former beekeeper, developed new hives with improved ventilation based on inspiration from other honeyproducing nations dealing with rising temperatures, including Turkey and Australia.

Early signs suggest the boxes improve production by around 10pc.

`Extreme heat does not make bees comfortable and instead of making honey, they 1(eep busy cooling themselves,` he tells the agency at Islamabad`s beel(eeping research centre.

`These modern boxes are more spacious and have different compartments giving more space to the bees.` The improved hives are just a part of the adaptation puzzle though, he acknowledges.

`It is an ongoing battle,` Chaudry says.-AFP