A very convincing trial has been demonstrated on a 70º laterite highway batter slope near Bundung, Indonesia. (this work was supported by the Indonesian Vetiver Network and TVNI). This is a great trial and the results are obvious even to…
Back in 1996 The Vetiver Network made a grant to Munchen fur Munchen (a German NGO working in Mettu, western Ethiopia, to support and expand its vetiver based soil conservation program. Twelve years later: From Debela Dinka – Sustainable Land…
I received an email from Yoann Copin in Madagascar who is working with a large mining operation. He would like to know if anyone has had experience stopping/slowing soil erosion using either lawn grasses or bamboo. I would like to…
When I first started my professional career as a conservationist and agriculturist in Zambia in the early 1960’s soil erosion was a major problem. Nearly 50 years later world wide erosion is worse. When I worked in Ethiopia 40 years…
Magic grass, silver bullet, wonder grass, miracle grass – these are all adjectives that other people have ascribed to Vetiver grass. Every user has different expectations of this grass, most often these expectations are achieved in very significant and positive…
I found this interesting site: http://www.domainedebelombre.mu/en/golf_du_chateau_gallery.aspx from the Golf Du Chateau course in Mauritius. The course has been partially landscaped and protected using vetiver grass. The lakes on the course look particularly clean – I suspect that the vetiver planted on the…
This 11 year old railroad located in the mountainous “Western Ghats” of India runs according to schedule, even through the monsoons – rainfall as high as 4,000 mm – due very much to its use of vetiver grass to protect…
Every now and then we need to remind ourselves what the Vetiver System will do: A: RESOURCE AND INFRASTRUCTURE PROTECTION Reduce soil loss by up to 90% and rainfall runoff by up to 70%. Reduce nutrient losses and improve soil…
We have just completed in conjunction with the Sustainable Land Use Forum and SIDA a very good Vetiver System Workshop in Addis Ababa that included a field visit to western Ethiopia where some 17000 farmers have been practicing farming using…
This blog is rather long. But it is important – so bear with me!! We face major economic and environmental problems from river bank erosion and the collapse of dykes and levees. These problems are increasing with climate changes that…
