How the environmental fate of clomazone in rice fields is influenced by amendment with olive-mill waste under different regimes of irrigation and tillage

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Irrigation and tillage systems alone or in combination with organic amendments can strongly influence soil properties, which in turn may also modify the environmental fate of any pesticides applied. This study was aimed at determining how amendment with composted olive-mill waste (W) influenced leaching, sorption, and persistence of the herbicide clomazone in rice field soils under different tillage and irrigation management practices. The field trial conducted covered 3 years in succession, with six treatments: irrigation by sprinkler and conventional tillage without (ST) or with W application (80 Mg ha−1) (STW), irrigation by sprinkler but no tillage (SNT), irrigation by sprinkler but no tillage with W application (SNTW), and continuous flooding irrigation and tillage without (FT) and with W application (FTW). RESULTS: Application of W significantly increased the adsorption of clomazone to soil in the first and third years. In the first year, the persistence of clomazone under aerobic (t1/2 = 33.1–36.3 days) and anaerobic incubation conditions (t1/2 = 3.43–10.8 days) decreased after W application to t1/2 values in the ranges 18.1–29.7 and 3.06–5.44 days, respectively. However, in the third year, although clomazone persistence increased significantly in SNT and ST when W was applied under both incubation conditions, it decreased significantly in FT management under anaerobic incubation conditions. The addition of W led to less leaching of clomazone, particularly for the FT case where the herbicide leaching losses were 2.8 and 2.6 times lower in the first and third years after W addition, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Using W as an organic amendment could be regarded as an invaluable strategy to reduce water contamination by clomazone in rice production, especially under traditional tillage and flooding management.