2024 Volume 4 Pages 126-136
The use of pesticides in modern agriculture became inevitable owing to improvements in crop protection and yield, whereas their residues in crops and other non-target environmental matrices remain matters of health concern. Therefore, this study is conducted to estimate pesticide contamination in food crops cultivated on floodplains of some rivers in Ekiti State, Southwest Nigeria, and their possible health risk. Soil samples were collected from the farms at 5, 25 and 45 m perpendicular to the river at upper, middle and lower courses of the river while crops sample appropriates were taken randomly from the farms. Samples of soil and food crops taken were subjected to laboratory treatments before they were analysed for organochlorine pesticides using standard procedures. The total soil OCPs range (μg/kg) at Irintan, Omi-Eye and Egbigbu floodplains were 7.50–9.28, 8.72–9.94 and 7.33–9.21, respectively, whereas total crops OCPs range (μg/kg) at Irintan, Omi-Eye and Egbigbu were 21.35–41.75, 12.05–51.89 and 19.42–107.48, respectively. The risk estimate of food crops consumption from the floodplains indicated that there may not be health risk associated with their consumption because the estimated daily intake was relatively lower than the standard reference dose and hazard index was less than one. However, the recent use of banned organochlorine pesticides was given by the ratio of β/α+γ benzene hexachloride residues values, which were greater than 0.5 in soil samples at the studied farms. Consequently, this should be a concern to the international community; this underscores the need for a stricter government regulation in line with United Nations’ safeguard for environment.
