Journal of Environmental Biology

Persistence of cyfluthrin in three Malaysian agricultural
soils under laboratory conditions

Choo Lee-Yin¹, B.S. Ismail¹*, S. Salmijah¹?and M. Halimah²

¹School of Environmental and Natural Resource Sciences, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan
Malaysia-43600 UKM Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia

²Malaysian Palm Oil Board, Kuala Lumpur 50720, Malaysia

*Corresponding Author email : ismail@ukm.my

Publication Data

Paper received:

26 September 2012

Revised received:

10 December 2012

Accepted:

20 February 2013

Abstract

The influence of temperature, moisture and organic matter on the persistence of cyfluthrin was determined using three types of Malaysian soils, namely clay, clay loam and sandy clay loam obtained from a tomato farm in Cameron Highlands, Pahang. The persistence of cyfluthrin was observed in the laboratory at two temperature levels of 25 and 35?C and field water capacity of 30 and 80%. Treated soil samples were incubated in a growth chamber for 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 10, 14, 21 and 28 days. The results from the incubation studies showed that temperature and organic matter content significantly reduced the half-life (t1/2) values of cyfluthrin in the three soil types, but moisture content had very little effect. It was observed that cyfluthrin persisted longer at lower temperature and moisture content and higher organic matter content in all the three soil types. The present study demonstrated that under the tropical conditions of Malaysia, cyfluthrin dissipated rapidly in soils compared to its dissipation in soils of temperate regions, evidently due to high temperature.

Key words

Cyfluthrin, Dissipation, Half-life value, Pesticide, Soil

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