Physiological and Biochemical Evaluation of Fomesafen Toxicity in Female Albino Wistar Rats

The use of herbicides is increasing in worldwide crop production. The value of the worldwide herbicide market grew by 39% between 2002 and 2011 and is projected to grow by another 11% by 2016 (Philips McDougall, 2013). Herbicides are being rapidly adopted in developing countries that face shortages of hand weeding labor and the need to raise crop yields (Zhang, 2003). Improved weed control with herbicides has the potential greatly to improve crop yields in many developing countries in the near future (Masthan et al., 1989). Increased herbicide use promotes fertilizer use, which leads to even greater yield increases (Manda, 2011). Research has shown that, if enough hand weeding is done at the optimal times, crop yields are not reduced by weed competition (Prasad et al., 2008). In reality, crop fields are seldom adequately weeded by hand; weeding is tedious and time consuming. Laborers are not always available when needed (De Datta and Barker, 1997). Weeding is often done late, causing drastic losses in yield (Rashid et al., 2012). The use of herbicides has gained impetus from the general rise in farm wages as a consequence of overall economic growth and growth in non-farm employment opportunities, particularly in Asia adequate non-chemical controls for weeds are not International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 6 Number 4 (2017) pp. 116-124 Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com