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Whiteflies and Croatian Agriculture

Whiteflies and Croatian Agriculture Agriculture generates 7 % of Croatian GDP. Cultivated land is 63.5% and the rest is pastureland of a total of 3.18 million hectares agricultural land. Predominant part of agriculture proprietor's structure is family farming (80 %). The highest number of farms is 1 to 5 hectares. Intensive conventional agriculture was connected with socialistically state holdings and followed world trends. Sustainable production (Environment Friendly)- integrated management has been applied on family farms. First steps in organic production have been done in vegetable, olive and vine growing. There are three agricultural regions in Croatia: the Pannonian, the Mountain and the Mediterranean. Mediterranean agriculture is the special segment of Croatian agriculture. It is recognized by traditional growing of olive, vine, fig, almond, hazel-nut, carob, citrus, vegetable, aromatic and medicinal plants. Faunistic and systematic of whitefly within Croatia has been poorly researched. Because of that, there is no detailed list of whitefly species present in the country. During the period 1996 – 2004 in the Mediterranean region, 14 whitefly species were identified by classical method, based on pupal case morphology. There are three whitefly species considered as agricultural pests. Greenhouse whitefly Trialeurodes vaporariorum became the significant pest in greenhouse production in all Croatia at the time of this one great expansion in seventies. Citrus whitefly Dialeurodes citri is an important pest on all Citrus species throughout citrus growing areas. It first invaded area surround Dubrovnik during 1977. Tobacco whitefly Bemisia tabaci mainly invaded Mediterranean region (Adriatic districts) but it was even found in the Sub-Pannonian district (Zagreb and Varazdin) in greenhouse conditions. It has infested vegetable crops (cucumber, melon, squash, egg-plant, pepper, and tomato) and ornamentals (poinsettia was the preferred host in this instance) since 2000 when it was identified in Split County. Other species are of sporadic or temporal importance, e.g. Siphoninus phillyreae was significant pest in olive seedlings production in greenhouse condition in 2003. In order to understand better the whitefly role in Croatian agriculture, more information through extended investigations particularly of whitefly-virus interaction is required.

whiteflies; Croatia

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