本省稻田使用殺草劑自50年代開始，惟在民國61年以前使用面積不多，增加亦十分緩慢，61年以後，由於經濟高速成長，農村勞力結構改變及殺草劑改良與施用技術之改進，使用面積逐年大幅度增加，至70年第1期作，全省稻田殺草劑使用率已達98%，歷年來所使用藥劑商品種類有資料可稽者達60餘種之多，但年使用面積曾達1萬公頃以上者僅有馬上除、掃丹、克草丹、掃丹M、一克草、殺田草、殺滅丹、草霸王、益歐、上好除等10種，其中以馬上除占第一位，約占總使用面積之50%。

The application of herbicides on paddy field in Taiwan can be traced to as early as 1960's. However, the pace was slow and the extent was limited until 1972, when the SuPply of rural labor began to shrink caused by the rapid industrialization as well as the improved chemicals and its application techniques have become more rei iable. Since then, the extent of herbicides appl ication have remarkably increased. Uo to the first crop of 1981. there were about 98% of paddy field in Taiwan using herbicides for weeds control. Since 1966, more than sixty commercial names of herbicides have been adopted by farmers, but only nine of them have been applied more than ten thousand hectares per year, i.e., Machete, Saturn. Molinate ordram, Saturn-M, X-52, Tok, Basagran. Mo, SM009. Among those, Machete was the topest one, its applied acreage was about 50% of the total paddy fields which used herbicides for weeds control in Taiwan. Although significant achievements have been made on the extension of herbicides in the past decade, there are still many problems to be solved, such as: too many herbicides to be chosen . by farmers, lack of experimental data to be followed, prices of some herbicides are still too high to be purchased by farmers.