The Vetiver System for Agriculture.

[dickji]

I am the founder of the Vetiver Network International and have lived and worked in India in the agricultural sector. I have seen mention on this forum information about Vetiver Grass.

Recently we co-sponsored a very large workshop in Kochi focussing on the Vetiver System. At a time of climate change, decreasing water supplies, increased fertilizer costs, greater rural and urban pollution, the Vetiver System that was first developed in India, should play a vital role in the agriculture sector.

The Vetiver System is low cost and efficient system for soil and water conservation, erosion control, infrastructure stabilization, pollution control, waste water treatment, mitigation and prevention of storm damage and many other applications. Vetiver Grass, Vetiveria zizanioides, (recently reclassified as Chrysopogon zizanioides) is the main component to all Vetiver System based bioengineering and conservation applications. The plant is unique. The roots of the grass have an average tensile strength of MPa 75 and improve the shear strength of soil by between 30 and 40%.

For the agricultural community the Vetiver System is the best soil conservation system available, it improves crop yields and helps drought proof the crop, it recharges ground water, cleans waste water and treats contaminated land. It can be used as forage, mulch, thatch and will protect some crops against insect damage (stem borer in maize).

The Vetiver System is being used in most tropical countries to stabilize highway and railroad embankments, river and canal banks, sea dikes, land slide areas etc. These applications provide farmers the opportunity to grow vetiver as a cash crop in the form of plant material for the above applications. Well grown vetiver will produce nearly 2 million planting slips per hectare at a farm gate price of between Rps 1-2 per slip - a pretty good return!

As I am sure most of you know vetiver (Khus Khus, Ramachan) is a native of India, we recommend the use of the south Indian non-fertile (non invasive vetiver) that is readily available

The Vetiver Network International has no commercial interests and there is a huge amount of information available about the Vetiver System (research and development) at: Vetiver Network International - Erosion Control, Pollution Control and Slope Stabilization at no cost. There is also an very useful link to a series of mini-power points of over 20 vetiver applications at Picasa Web Albums - Vetiver Clients. If you have any friends, colleagues or neighbors who you think might be interested in the Vetiver System, please tell them about the technology.

Thank you

Dick Grimshaw