article · Toxicological & Environmental Chemistry Reviews
Metribuzin is a triazinone herbicide widely applied in Kenya to improve sugarcane harvests in the Nzoia River Drainage Basin. Field investigations evaluated the rate at which the herbicide degrades across several soil conditions over 102 days. The research assessed soils enriched with filter mud compost, soils amended with Tithonia diversifolia foliage, and unamended soils that had experienced metribuzin use over the preceding 48 months. Repeated prior exposure to the chemical and the introduction of filter mud compost both accelerated herbicide breakdown, yielding half dissipation periods of 31 and 25 days, respectively. Soil treated with Tithonia diversifolia achieved a half dissipation time of 32 days, compared to 36 days observed in untreated soil without prior herbicide exposure. Complementary laboratory tests demonstrated that sterilising the soil prolonged the half dissipation duration to 154 days, demonstrating that the breakdown process is largely biochemical.
Extensive herbicide application in farming can lead to chemical persistence in agricultural lands and river catchments. Demonstrating that organic soil amendments such as filter mud compost speed up the biochemical degradation of metribuzin offers practical approaches for managing herbicide residues. This understanding helps land managers enhance natural breakdown processes and mitigate lingering environmental contamination in sensitive river drainage basins.
This research provides applied field evidence that sugarcane by-products such as filter mud compost can be deployed to manage herbicide persistence in agricultural soils. Sugarcane growers and environmental remediation managers could utilise these organic amendments as low-cost treatments to accelerate soil recovery. The findings represent applied, tested field research, although developing standardised application protocols or commercial soil-amendment products would require further development.
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ABSTRACTMetribuzin, a triazinone herbicide, is heavily used within the expansive Nzoia River Drainage Basin in Kenya for the optimization of sugarcane yields. For field experiments, soils were spiked with metribuzin and amended with filter mud compost and Tithonia diversifolia leaves. Soils with history of metribuzin application (48 months) were also spiked with metribuzin but not amended with the organic materials. Degradation of metribuzin for the three variants was followed for a period of 102 days. Repeated exposure of metribuzin to soil and addition of filter mud compost to soil enhances the degradation of metribuzin with half dissipation times of 31 and 25 days. In soil amended with Tithonia diversfolia leaves, the half dissipation time was 32 days while in the control (unamended non history soil), it was 36 days. Laboratory studies showed that soil sterilization slowed the degradation of metribuzin, with a half dissipation time of 154 days. This confirmed that metribuzin was biochemically degraded ...
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DOI: 10.1080/02772248.2015.1128938
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