Monitoring of Pesticide Residues in Strawberry and Soil from Different Farming Systems in Egypt

A total of 144 Kg of strawberry and 38 soil samples, representing two types of farming production e.g. conventional (C), organic (O), was collected from (Bilbeis and AL-Salhia, New AL-Sharqiya governorate) Egypt. Pesticides residues were determined by gas chromatography with mass selective detector (GC-MSD). This method used to determine 86 pesticide residues with a broad range of physico-chemical properties in fresh fruits related to Organophosphorous, Organochlorines, Pyrethroids and Carbamates mainly used in agriculture. Sample extract was cleaned up using official methods, for soil samples. Residues of some organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), such as endosulfan, aldrin, O,P-DDD, P,P-DDE; organophousphorus (OPPs), such as pirimiphos-me and dimethoate; carbamet as propamocarb; and pyrthroide such as carbaryl and deltamethrin were monitored.Result showed the highest residues with exceeded MRL then the other detected pesticides as P,P-DDE (8.33% and 12.5%) samples from Conventional and Organic respectively and pirimiphos-me 33.33%. Generally, the conventional strawberry revealed the highest amount of total pesticides (15.55 mg/kg), followed by organic strawberry (0.132 mg/kg). On the other hand, the total detected amount of pesticide residues in conventional soil were 6.702, 6.225 and 4.551 ppm) and ranked in descending order (surface, 20cm and 10cm) respectively. While in organic soil we didn't find residues in surface soil samples but the total detected residues were 0.192 and 0.093 ppm) at 10cm followed by 20cm. In conclusion, the study throws light on the problem of pesticide residues in conventional and organic farms such as strawberry.