The findings show that honeybees given food scented with odors that mimicked sunflowers supported a significant increase in sunflower crop production.

"We show that it's possible to condition honeybees to a rewarded odor inside the colony, and this experience modifies the bees' odor-guided behaviors later," says Walter Farina of Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina. "The most surprising and relevant result is that the foraging preferences for the target crop are so prolonged and intensive that it promoted significant increases in the crop yields."

— Read more in Scientists 'scent train' honeybees to boost sunflowers' seed production at Science Daily.