Data from: Pollination mitigates cucumber yield gaps more than pesticide and fertilizer use in tropical smallholder gardens

1. Pollination can be an essential but often neglected ecosystem service
to mitigate crop yield gaps. Pollination services are usually studied in
isolation and their relative role and possible interactions with other
factors, such as major management practices, is little understood. 2. We
tested how pollination (insect versus wind- and self-pollination)
interacts with weed control, fertilization, and insect herbivore control
and how these factors as well as flower-visiting bees influence fruit set
and yield of cucumber Cucumis sativus L. in 13 traditional Indonesian home
gardens. 3. Although insect pollination, fertilization, and weed control
additively increased crop yield, fertilization and weed control alone
could not compensate for pollination loss. Pollination individually
accounted for 75% of the yield and was, hence, the most important driver
of yield. In contrast, herbivore control through insecticides at commonly
applied levels did not increase yield. 5. Yield strongly increased with
higher number of flower-visiting bee individuals, while the number of bee
individuals in turn was not influenced by weed control, fertilization, or
herbivore control, but increased with higher number of cucumber flowers.
6. Synthesis and applications. Although multiple management practices
influence yield, they cannot compensate yield gaps from pollinator loss in
cucumber smallholder production in Indonesia. Our results also show that
the widespread use of insecticides without considering the impacts on pest
reduction is uneconomical. Here, reducing insecticides caused no income
loss and, at the same time, reduces potential risks to important
pollinators, which needs to be acknowledged by policy-driven regulations
for pesticide application in tropical agroecosystems. Our results stress
the importance of enhancing bee populations to facilitate pollination
services. Bee management practices, such as sustaining additional food
resources for pollinators, need to be established.

allData_Dryad"allData_Dryad" is an Exel file consisting of three sheets with data collected in the field and used in the analyses of this paper. The file includes yield data, herbivory data, and pollinator observation data.