Monitoring of Pesticides Level in Agricultural Soils using Validated Method

Abstract

Agricultural soil serves as a natural medium for the growth of a variety of edible crops and vegetables. Likewise, systematic assessment of agricultural soil becomes mandatory as it reflects direct linkage with the food chain and health of living beings. In the past few decades, it has been detected with the presence of various environmental contaminants being heavy metals and pesticides. The current research focuses on the investigation of different pesticides viz., organophosphorous (OPPs) and organochlorine (OCs) in agricultural soils of Amritsar (India) using gas chromatograph. All soil samples (except south zone) were found to be contaminated with one or the other pesticide. The linearity was observed over the range from 0.1 to 1.0 mg L-1 for all pesticides. The coefficient of determination (r2) was observed in the range of 0.916 to 0.999. The LODs, based on signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio of 3, ranged from 0.003 to 0.009 mg L-1. The precision of the proposed method was presented and accepted with an RSD greater than 20%. This report pertains to the presence of alarming concentrations of pesticides in soils of Amritsar (India).