Background: Tomato yellow leaf curl disease (TYLCD), which is caused by the genus Begomovirus, is basically transmitted by the vector whitefly, Bemisia tabaci (B. tabaci). It remains a destructive disease of tomato across the world. The disease is present in many tomato growing countries, and it has a broad geographical distribution. The population and distribution of the vector are therefore an important factor in disease spread. This study assesses the determinants of the relationship between climatic factors and whitefly population. A thorough search of relevant papers was first initiated, and eventually 16 articles with 142 estimates were selected. A meta-regression analysis, especially the random-effects model with a restricted maximum likelihood (REML) estimator, was applied.

Results: Summarization of effect sizes revealed a mean effect size for the study of r = 0.15. The forest plot suggested a significant amount of study heterogeneity. No evidence of significant publication bias was uncovered. The meta-analysis revealed that the population of whiteflies was significantly related to climatic independent variables such as maximum and minimum temperature and rainfall. Other factors such as altitude, number of symptoms, pesticide policy, type of soil, number of references, impact factor and publication status were found to significantly influence the effect sizes.

Conclusions: Whiteflies are playing a major role in spreading the TYLCD. Several factors were identified to have a significant impact on the climatic conditions-whitefly population nexus. Since climatic factors, altitude, existing pesticide laws and type of soil were found to have a significant impact on the effect sizes, agricultural management policies could be enacted by specifically considering those factors in a view to minimize the impact of whiteflies. In general, all the above factors could be considered in strategy to manage TYLCD.