VARIATIONS IN INFESTATIONS OF THE ALMOND TREE IN SICILY IN THE FIFTY YEARS

Until fifty years ago, Sicilian almond production was a fairly important economic activity, not only for the actual income but also because it could use agricultural labour in periods in which there was little work in traditional cereal growing.

Subsequently this activity underwent a slow and gradual decline for various reasons, including old plants, foreign competition, the expansion of other more lucrative crops (such as the vine in the Canicatti area), the lack of specialisation and the presence of non-selected cultivars.

In this framework, the health situation of the plants underwent considerable variations: the reduction of infestations previously considered serious, the appearance of new pests and, lastly, the rise of infestations previously considered unimportant.

At present various attempts are being made to give back its former importance to this crop.
Hence in the present paper we set out to give a picture of the most important infestations and highlight the variations which have occurred in the last fifty years.

For this purpose we got together and put in order all observations made in the last few decades on pests affecting this plant.
Moreover, papers reporting on almond pests in Sicily and other parts of southern Italy proved to be very useful (Martelli, 1953; Monastero, 1955; Lupo, 1958; Roberti, 1959, Liotta, 1984).

I International Congress on Almond

G. LIOTTA, G. MANIGLIA

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1994.373.40