Analysis of Pesticide Residues in Agricultural Soil Using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC)

This study investigated the level of pesticide residues in agricultural soil from three main location of south-western part of Nigeria namely the cocoa plantations of idanre, Owena and Abata Ogun of shaki local government area of Oyo state. Quantitative analysis was performed using the high performance liquid chromatography method (HPLC). Identification of the pesticide residues was carried out by matching the retention times of the sample with that of the standard. The accuracy of the quantitative determination measured in terms of average percentage recovery of the seven pesticides in fifteen soil samples were 84.6 % with a relative standard deviation of 11.6 %. The concentration values of the pesticides in all the soil samples analysed ranged from 1.15x 10-3g/kg to 8.36g/kg. The results were compared with the FAOs maximum residue limit (MRL). All the pesticide residues detected in the soil samples analysed except paraquat, Propoxur and endosulfan were above the MRL at various percentage levels. The pesticides above this value are likely to pose significant risk to the human health and hence should therefore be monitored closely.