Florida’s citrus growers say as much as 90 per cent of their acreage and 80 per cent of their trees are infected by the deadly greening disease (HLB), which is making a huge dent in the state’s US$10.7bn citrus industry.
That is according to a new University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences survey (UF/IFAS).
The survey, conducted in March 2015, shows the first grower-based estimates of both the level of citrus greening in Florida and the impact of greening on citrus operations in Florida.
“Even though the industry acknowledges that greening has reached epidemic proportions across the state, estimates of the level of infection and its impact on citrus operations are scarce,” the researchers wrote in the paper.
Assistant professor Ariel Singerman and associate professor Pilar Useche, faculty members in the UF/IFAS food and resource economics department, surveyed about 200 growers to estimate their losses from the disease.
They obtained about 76 completed surveys; those growers operate approximately 30 per cent of Florida’s citrus acreage. They also estimate greening has reduced their yield by 41 per cent.
Surveyed growers said, on average, 90 per cent of citrus acreage and 80 per cent of trees in their operations had been infected, on average, in any given operation in Florida.
Singerman and Useche conducted their survey at the UF/IFAS Citrus Research and Education Center, where Singerman conducts his research. Useche works at the UF Gainesville campus.
