Pesticides and Soil Environment: An Age-Linked Concept

Pesticide was considered complex substances intended for preventing, destroying, or controlling any pest including vectors of human or animal diseases. They are specific chemicals, which contain both “active” or energetic and “inactive” or inert ingredients. The term pesticide includes herbicide, insecticide, nematicide, sanitizer, bactericide, insect repellent, animal repellent, antimicrobial, fungicide, disinfectant, molluiscide, and avicide among others. They are classified based on the mode of entry, mode of function and action, and their chemical composition. These pesticides played a key role in controlling and mitigating variety of agricultural pest and diseases in farm, garden. They contrary, affect soil functional service and great biological biodiversity including human and his environment. Many factors and processes are involved in the transfer, transport and degradation or biochemical conversation of pesticides in soil. The soil factors are the soil organic matter, soil pH, temperature, nutrients, moisture, infiltration rate, aerobic and anaerobic, soil texture and structure. The combined processes are physical, biological, and chemical with great conversion on weathering, hydrolysis, oxidation-reduction, photolysis humification, cheluviation, organic sorting, translocation, eluviations, illuviation, calcification, podsolisation, gleying, and leaching. Seven important subjects have been treated in a synopsis manner – major groups of pesticides, pesticide toxicity (acute and chronic effects), processes affecting pesticides in soil, pesticides and its ecological effects (soil, crop, biota and human), step by step procedure and soil sampling, techniques involving analysis of pesticides residues in soil, and bioremediation and biodegradation approaches.