Peach (Prunus persica L. Batsch) production and environmental conditions in Jenin, Palestine

Abstract

Peach is a fruit tree which contributes to the building of the agricultural and national economy of many countries of the world, including Palestine. Peach and nectarines are affected by the surrounding climatic conditions. In this study, meteorological data were taken from the meteorological station of the city of Jenin from the Palestinian meteorological stations in Ramallah. Data of climatic conditions and fruit production was recorded from the beginning of January 1993 to December 2012, from the Central Bureau of Statistics Palestinian conflict. The Salvador Rivas Martinez of the bioclimatic and the land classification program was used to the analysis of environmental factors. Then XLASTAT software program was used to determine the relationship between climate, bioclimate variables and peach production for the studied area. The principal component analysis and the correspondence analysis were used. Results showed that Jenin region was positively influenced by factors of precipitation, annual ombrothermic index, simple continentality index and soil water reserve, because these factors sited at the positive X-axis during (1993-1996 and 2002-2007), and symmetric plot of axes (F1 and F2: 99.37%) of the total variance. Our analysis showed that peach cultivation is adapted in areas where mean monthly temperatures are between 17 and 22°C, simple continentality index (15 to 19), precipitation (450 to 1000 mm), compensated thermicity index (250/350), and annual ombrothermic index is more than 2.5 at Jenin area of Palestine.

Keywords: Palestine, Jenin, Fertile Crescent, Marj Ibin Amer, peach, production, environmental.