Conventional v. Creative? The Father of Vetiver weighs in.

John Greenfield, the author of the groundbreaking Green Book, Vetiver: The Thin Green Line Against Erosion, and the "Father of Vetiver," just posted his views about well-intentioned but misguided efforts to help developing countries conserve soil and water.  They're well worth considering:
Misguided Aid to the Third World: the ‘Poverty’ Gap

“The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” It most certainly is.

Eighty percent of Third World poverty occurs among rainfed farmers and their extended families in the tropics. More than 40 years spent on the ground in these countries exposed me to a huge variety of well-intentioned aid agencies, donor countries and myriad alphabet agencies from the United Nations.  Their  researchers, engineers and theoretical economists have battled for decades, and battle today, to develop a workable solution to the poverty and hunger in these areas. I've met many outstanding individuals over the years, but these brilliant minds are no match for the lack of coordination and different demands and agendas of the many and varied donor agencies involved in every developing country.

Donor countries with no experience in the tropics send their "experts" into the field and make multi-million dollar investment in schemes that are doomed to failure right from the start. Government heads and UN departments listen to economists who lack field experience and allocate aid according to textbook assumptions.

A major reason for near universal failure is the myth perpetrated by successions of aid experts from developed countries that the poverty of subsistence farmers resulted from a complex historical process that does not lend itself to simple or quick solutions. Economists are injected to explain the situation, anthropologists to analyse farmers’ needs, and then engineers to construct interventions developed for temperate climes, all without seeming to reach an understanding of the basic problem. However, an interesting historical fact is that very advanced agricultural civilizations developed and flourished in some of the most arid zones of the world – in the Near East, North Africa and Central America – and then disappeared, either because they failed to conserve precious soil, water, and fuel wood, or because they employed irrigation schemes that lacked a drainage component, and ultimately salinized the most fertile alluvial areas.

The world’s population is growing at a rate close to two percent annually, and by as much as four percent in parts of Africa. Typically there are two methods of farming – irrigated and rainfed.  Irrigated land accounts for about 20% of worldwide cultivation and 40% of global crop production. However, the cost of irrigation and drainage in the 1990s averaged around $10,000/hectare but could be as high as $25,000/hectare in the drier parts of Africa. Can developing countries really be expected to establish and maintain irrigated agriculture?

No. 

It's quite obvious that the additional food production needed in future years must come from the 80% of cultivated land that is rainfed.  The only way to address the hunger and poverty situation on a sustainable basis for subsistence farmers in the tropics is through moisture conservation, specifically by controlling runoff and making the best use of the rainfall in an area. Because of increased pressure on the land, the average subsistence rainfed farmer today, loses as much as 60% of his rainfall as runoff to the drainage network, which also causes major flooding in delta areas (Bangladesh, for instance). The runoff also carries off his soil and any remaining nutrients. Annual rainfall of 1000mm is thus reduced to an effective rainfall of only 400mm, which, if it arrives at sporadic intervals, cannot sustain a good crop, and another “drought” is declared.

Over the years, many organizations have recognized the need to control runoff and resulting soil erosion and loss and have invested a lot of effort and money in rainfed regions to address the problem mechanically, employing a battery of engineering "solutions." Contour banks, diversion banks, absorption banks, waterways, retainer walls, gabions, low dams and water harvesting schemes have proven to be unsustainable in the long term. The subsistence farmer lacks the equipment and labour required to maintain such interventions, and also takes issue with the amount of productive land taken out of production by such schemes.

The upshot is that all of this aid into rainfed areas has increased erosion, compromised production which reduces food and water, and increases poverty.  The increased runoff doesn't recharge the underground aquifers that supplied fresh water to village wells or sustained perennial streams, and the resulting floods are becoming horrendous.

Lesotho, a little country in Southern Africa, is a classic example of a well-intentioned but totally inappropriate constructed soil and water conservation system that virtually destroyed it. Diversion banks and waterways have eroded into gullies and canyons, making it impossible for farmers to cross from one side of their fields to the other.  Erosion is unchecked.  Aid agencies have abandoned the country to its fate, never admitting their constructed conservation system was a tragic mistake.

Man’s efforts to intervene in nature have failed miserably. We are too impatient. We demand an immediate fix.  Companies bring in the bulldozers, get paid and get out. The results are worldwide engineering disasters. Levees (stop banks) that are expected to control rivers in a meander plain, end with the river 30 feet above the town. Diversion systems that deprive an area of its natural runoff concentrate it in drainage networks that were never meant to handle it. All of these systems requirie massive construction and maintenance costs before ultimately failing completely and disastrously.  Hurricane Katrina, for example, burst through unprotected levees in Louisiana.

What subsistent rainfed farmers need throughout the tropical world is in situ moisture conservation to produce their crops on a sustainable basis; in situ moisture conservation to produce their fuel wood; in situ moisture conservation to replenish their aquifers and once perennial streams; in situ conservation systems that farmers can install themselves and maintain without assistance.

Decades of field trials and research by dedicated scientists, extension workers and organizations across the globe have proved there is an alternative, cheaper, biological solution to resolve our erosion and pollution problems that doesn't include complicated, expensive engineering and structural designs, and contrived bureaucratic accounting and bidding procedures.  It's a grass – a quite remarkable and astonishing plant known as Vetiver (Chrysopogon zizanioides). 

High intensity rain storms in the tropics that cause runoff severe enough to cause erosion, landslides and mudslides, is a dynamic system that can't be controlled by static measures such as gabions, retainer walls, contour banks or even trees.

Use nature to control nature!

When planted as a single line, Vetiver forms a stiff, dense hedge that prevents erosion, forms natural terraces, increases soil moisture, and doesn't compete with companion crops.  Once established, Vetiver can withstand droughts, fire and floods, and will grow on highly acid or alkaline soils.  It can reclaim mine dumps, stabilize road cuttings, embankments and river banks, is economical to propagate and install, and requires only labor and hand tools.

Vetiver roots can absorb surplus nitrates and phosphates, can tolerate high levels of toxic elements such as arsenic, mercury, aluminium, and manganese,  and can protect dams and harbours from siltation.  This plant increases crop yields through moisture and nutrient conservation, grows only where planted, and is not a weed. Vetiver hedges will grow anywhere on any soil in the tropics (and subtropics), and, once established, will last for more than 100 years.

Over the past 20 years, The Vetiver Network International has had a major impact in the private sector and through worldwide NGOs (Non-Government Organisations), promoting Vetiver contour hedges to subsistence farmers in rainfed areas. Vetiver Systems are breathtakingly simple, and they work.

Vetiver.org provides a wealth of information, evidence, case studies and extensive references from field people who have successfully installed the Vetiver System, for those willing to open their minds and tackle sustainable development in a truly sustainable manner.

A rose by any other name is still...Vetiver

Whether you call Vetiver grass Vetyver, Vetivert, Akar Wangi (Indonesia), or Khus Khus (India), it's the same plant, and a quite remarkable one at that! Dick Grimshaw crunches the numbers and summarizes the benefits of the Vetiver System:

As resource and infrastructure protection, Vetiver
Reduces soil loss by up to 90%, and rainfall runoff by up to 70%.
Improves soil moisture, reduces nutrient losses, and reduces the impact of drought--increasing crop yields up to 50%.
Improves the survival and growth of planted trees by as much as 80%.
Stabilizes inhospitable areas, creating a welcoming environment for re-establishment of indigenous plants. (Rick Barboza, this application has your name on it!)
Improves groundwater, stream and spring flow, and regeneration of wetlands.
Improves water quality and reduces pollution by containing and treating waste.
Protects farm canals, drains, roads, and buildings, and reduces maintenance costs.
Protects land and property from floods.

Vetiver helps farms and farm families by generating
Long-lasting mulch which holds soil moisture, organic matter and nutrients.
Forage, up to 70 tons of dry matter/ha (high-yield) if managed and cut regularly.
Durable thatch and rope that last much longer than other thatching material.
Fuel, since mature grass has a high energy value, and potential as a community energy source (direct burning as green fuel and as feedstock for biogas plants).
A pest-control system of push-pull maize/sorghum stem borer reduction.
Handicraft material. Vetiver leaves are long, slender and stiff; like lauhala, it's wonderfully suited to weaving.
More Vetiver plant material. Sales of plant material can be highly profitable.
Fragrant roots for use in cooking, medicine (internal and external), and aromatherapy.

What an extraordinary plant!!

If it's raining, it's Vetiver weather!

It doesn't take much to return Vetiver's true mission to front and center. Well, I suppose it depends on whether you consider 14 inches of rain in 12 hours to be "much."

Heavy rains on Oahu swamped local homes and farmlands on its North Shore, central island, and leeward coast, hitting hard the communities of Laie, Hauula, Haleiwa and Wailua, Waipahu and Waianae, among others. Raw sewage overflowed from Ewa Beach cesspools, and that problem resurfaced (!) in North Shore communities which historically suffer when their septic systems cannot handle heavy rain. Wahiawa and Sand Island wastewaster treatment plants overflowed, too. Honolulu Harbor and the beleagered Lake Wilson were the depositories. Military waste treatment facilities were equally unprepared. My Marines at MCB Kaneohe Bay lost thousands of gallons of untreated sewage into Kaneohe Bay and the Mokapu Central Drainage Channel. The army at Schofield Barracks deposited nearly a million gallons of effluent into Kaukonahua Stream and into its storm drains. Coastal waters turned brown from runoff, and motorists were greeted with the first mudslides of the season.

A levee in Waianae Valley constructed by the city to prevent water from flowing into residents' backyards along Puuhulu Road burst, forming a brown stream that destroyed the very yards it was intended to protect. Homeowner Virgil Haynes lost her beehives.

AND...a very simple technology could have anticipated the annual devastation and mitigated the results: the VETIVER SOLUTION.

Cane Fire! Vetiver hedges protect sugar cane, too

This is the second story today that I've cockaroached from The Vetiver Network. The following exchange between Dick Grimshaw and John Greenfield addresses the application of the Vetiver System to agriculture dear to Hawaii: sugar cane fields and native forests.

From Dick Grimshaw:

The recent fires in California remind us of its devastation to property and to the local ecology. Often these fires are so hot that they burn off most of the ground vegetation. Recovery is
slow and, during the delay, the land is exposed to rainfall and resulting erosion, high rainfall runoff, and sometimes land slippage.

Plenty of evidence shows that it's difficult to burn green Vetiver. Although Vetiver may burn off, sometimes completely, when it's dry, it recovers quickly within weeks. This enables the hedge to meet its design objectives.

Green vetiver hedges are very dense, and fire has difficulty penetrating them. Under these conditions, the hedge acts as a fire break to slow creeping fires. Where Vetiver in Fiji was grown in conjunction with sugar cane it survived the annual fire that was set before the cane harvest.

On Vanuatu (South Pacific) Vetiver hedges were used to improve moisture and soil fertility to facilitate the replanting of forests destroyed by fire. This successful process is described on the TVNI website. The new forests were also subject to fire; those that were burned recovered quite quickly because the Vetiver started regrowing (ex-hibernation) as soon as the tree canopy was incinerated. The revived hedges reduced erosion and runoff which helped the trees to recover quickly.

Find representative images of this Vetiver recovery at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/VetiverNetwork/VetiverSystemsAndFire#

John Greenfield responds:

Dick has made a valid point here: green Vetiver hedges in the tropics are virtually fireproof. Let me make a slight correction to keep the record straight.

Dick reports that Vetiver in Fiji grown in conjunction with sugar cane survived the annual fire that was set before the cane harvest.

Unlike nearly every other cane-growing country, no cane in Fiji was burned before harvesting. If it was, the sugar company penalized the grower, because burned cane results in slightly caramelized sugar that costs more to refine. In Fiji, growers burn the trash generated by the cane harvest. (Like Hawaii,) Fiji has no snakes, or dangerous vermin that would require a pre-harvest fire, but you do have to watch for hornets.

The amazing thing about Vetiver hedges in the cane fields is that, following harvest, the cane grows rapidly and in a matter of months completely shades the vetiver from the light. At the next harvest, (12 months later for ratoon crops ,18 months later for plant crops) the hedge is plunged into full sunlight, then must survive the heat of a trash fire before once again being shaded again by the next ratoon crop. This process repeats for years but doesn’t effect the Vetiver's viability. I don’t know of many plants that can withstand this rough treatment.

Vetiver hedges work with nature to curb erosion

The following is excerpted from a recent letter to Elise Pinners by John Greenfield, author of Vetiver Grass: The Hedge Against Eriosion (1990) and The Vetiver System for Soil and Water Conservation (the 2008 update of his 1987 manual), and widely regarded as the Father of the Renaissance of the Vetiver Movement:

From my 50+ years of experience starting with the Soil Conservation Service, and comparing its widely published schemes with yeomans, border listing, deep ripping, ridge and furrow, through to Fanya Juu – I noted they share one thing in common: all are constructed unnatural systems that work against nature rather than with it. They either move runoff out of the area that it fell in, or accumulate it in "puddles" or ponds that render it unavailable to crops without a lot of effort.

Compare these with the vetiver hedge properly installed across the slope or on the contour. It controls runoff, spreads it out, and allows the runoff to “ooze” through its entire length on its way down the slope, effectively watering the whole area and benefiting the plants. Vetiver hedges welcome the rain; more rain means more moisture is spread over the area. When we first discovered the world’s oldest vetiver hedges in Gundalpet, India, (where they were used to mark farm boundaries), the resulting crop in areas where these hedges crossed the slope had grown in so evenly that it looked as if it had been irrigated. Two reasons support this fact --the hedges eventually level the land because collected silt fills low areas behind the hedge, and the water spends a longer time on the surface, which breaks up surface sealing and allows the water to penetrate to depths where the moisture is needed. Since the hedges do not convey the runoff, it backs up and waits to ooze through the hedge.

When runoff is being conveyed to another outlet like a natural drainage outlet, spillway, waterway, pit or dam, it moves continually. Water from a useful rain does not remain on the ground long enough to break up surface sealing before it's lost as runoff. The more intense the rain, the faster it moves and the less moisture is stored. This pattern results in more damage to a constructed system. A constructed conservation bank can only operate safely for 300 m before it discharges the water it is conveying or storing. Otherwise the bank will overflow and burst. A vetiver hedge, on the other hand, can be run safely for kilometres because it doesn’t convey the water --it filters the water through its entire length. Since constructed systems are built from the same soil you're trying to protect from erosion, they are exposed to the same dangers of erosion and runoff as the unprotected bare ground. They are not "anchored" into the ground. In contrast, the massive root systems of Vetiver hedges anchor them to the ground.

Ridges and furrows, Fanya Juu, contour banks and their ilk are a lot of pain for very little gain. Given his plowing and planting program, the average subsistence farmer lacks the time to put them in place. Once in place, he lacks the time and labor to maintain or reconstruct them. However, once a vetiver hedge is in place, the farmer has little to worry about.

Elise, as you say in Dutch, “We get too soon old and too late smart”

Regards,

John Greenfield.