Collection

The Impact of Agrochemicals in Water

Human population is reaching 8000 million while about a half of the planet's suitable land has been already cultivated for crops. Agriculture have been intensifying since XIX century with a high impulse along the XX century due to the first massive synthetic pesticides. Among these, the organochlorine pesticides (hexachlorocyclohexanes, hexachlorobenzene, DDT, chlordanes, endosulphanes, etc.) have already been banned or severely restricted worldwide but they persist as an environmental concern as legacy or presently used compounds. Undoubtedly, innovations that boost crop yields carry ecological costs, and this has been shown to occur with many “new generation pesticides/herbicides” such as chlorpyrifos and glyphosate which are presently in debate at many countries legislations and UNEP. With the objective of increase production in a sustainable and safety way, there is a growing interest in new technologies which can diminish or even replace synthetic pesticides/herbicides. From new nano-delivery systems using current or nature-derived polymers for agri-food application to “botanical pesticides” joint with green nanotechnologies appear as highly promising in the field. This collection is intended to overview from past-use chemically persistent pesticides case studies to novel water detection and monitoring technologies for their treatment and abatement processes. Further, innovative pesticides/herbicides application technologies such as nano-delivery systems, new environmentally friendly compounds and agroecological approaches, even still in development, in order to get effective solutions for the agricultural and aquacultural use of water, drinking water and wastewater treatment, water quality monitoring and assessment.

Keywords: Pesticides, Herbicides, Analytical technologies, Sensor Technologies, Botanical pesticides, Nano-delivery systems, Agroecology, Restoration

Editors

  • Andrés H. Arias

    Argentinean Institute of Oceanography, Argentina Dr. Arias is researcher at CONICET (National Council of Scientific and Technological Research, Argentina) and the National South University, Argentina,in the field of persistent organic pollutants (POPs), hydrocarbons,chlorinated and phosphorous pesticides, phenols,tin organics and microplastics introduced by humans in the marine environment, coastal and river courses. He serves as project manager of various water resources as well as editor and international journal reviewer. He is acting at UNEP Scientific Advisory Committee for Marine Litter and Microplastics, as well as the GESAMP WG-40.

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