Pollination of Pembrokeshire's arable and fruit crops could be under threat if the number of inspectors who monitor disease in honeybee hives is cut.

The National Assembly currently funds the Bee Inspectorate, which employs inspectors to visit hives to check for signs of disease.

Since the varroa mite killed off the wild honeybee population, farmers have relied on commercial hives to pollinate their crops.

Indeed, bees can increase yields in oil seed rape crops by 25%.

Tom Pegg, vice-chairman of the Pembrokeshire Beekeepers' Association, said farmers growing oil seed rape were always keen to have hives of honeybees nearby to pollinate the crop.

The bee inspector who monitors hives in Pembrokeshire and part of Ceredigion routinely visits beekeepers every three years.

"He is always at the end of the phone and will come down virtually straight away if a beekeeper has a problem,'' said Mr Pegg, of Parc-y-Pant, Llanfallteg.

From 2007, DEFRA is proposing a 20% cut from its £1.25 million grant to the National Bee Unit. It is possible that the National Assembly will follow suit.

The Assembly said the reason for these cuts was changes in EU regulations which de-notify varroa.

This, it suggested, would reduce to some extent the workcarried out by the NBU. "The Assembly will also be reviewing the cost of the Bee Inspectorate,'' said a spokeswoman.

Tom Pegg has 30 hives of varying sizes, some of which are only building up to full colonies from swarms last year.

He and the dozens of other beekeepers in Pembrokeshire, are worried about the proposals.

"The biggest problem will be with the beekeepers who have two or three hives who may not have seen disease and won't know what they are looking for,'' said Mr Pegg.

"If bee inspectors are only going to be visiting them once every five years, then they could lose all their hives.''