Impact of weather parameters on incidence of whitefly, Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) on chilli in Andhra Pradesh

Abstract

To know the initial occurrence and subsequent build up of whitefly population on chilli crop in relation to weather parameters, the field experiments were carried out from 2014-16 at Horticultural Research station, Lam, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh. Seasonal incidence of whitefly was recorded from leaves and fruits at weekly intervals during the crop growth period. In 2014-15, Correlation coefficients worked out between whitefly population and weather parameters of preceding one week indicated that among the various weather parameters, significant positive correlation was observed between morning relative humidity (0.25**), evening relative humidity (0.33*) and minimum temperature (0.04**) whereas significant negative correlation was observed with maximum temperature (-0.22**) and non significant negative impact of rain fall (-0.27) with whitefly population. Similar trend was observed at preceding two weeks and also in 2015-16 year. The combined effect of weather parameters ranged from 22 to 62 per cent.