Recently the environmental pollution with crop-protection agents has resulted in public awareness on the effect of herbicides on both, water quality and human health. This has stimulated research on reduction of herbicides dose necessary to minimize the risk of water contamination. This target can be achieved by using controlled rele ase formulations of herbicides capable to maintain their concentration in soil above the threshold concentration for an acceptable weed control. The procedures that have been developed for preparation of controlled release formulations of herbicides are reviewed in this paper. These include starch and lignin entrapment, and alginate encapsulation. Laboratory experiments and field trials carried out to evaluate the herbicides release mechanism, the release kinetics, the encapsulation efficiency, and the herbicides mobility in soil, are presented.