Dr. Rattan Lal, winner of the World Foodprize, and Director of Lal Center for Carbon Management and Sequestration, The Ohio State University, Columbus, USA wrote an article for the special edition on Vetiver, published (May/June 2023) by India’s Agriculture World magazine to commemorate ICV7. His full paper, with references, concluded
“Use of Vetiver is a SLM system, especially for degraded soils, drought prone and erosion-susceptible environments, marginal lands and polluted soils. In addition to being a high-value essential oil crop, Vetiver has multiple benefits of enhancing agronomic productivity on marginal, degraded and polluted lands while conserving soil, recharging ground water, purifying wastewater, sequestering carbon in biomass and soil for adaptation and mitigation of climate change, improving productivity and advancing Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations of the Agenda 2030. High biomass production can also be a feedstock for bioenergy production. Agronomic productivity can be enhanced to advance food and nutritional security by establishing contour hedges, mulching and with other Vetiver-based farming”