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Last March, The Vetiver Network International (TVNI) helped sponsor a Vetiver System workshop in Ethiopia. It seems that somebody listened. Dick Grimshaw, Chairman of TVNI shared a message that he received from Belayneh Adugna, the Up-Scaling Component Coordinator and Soil and Water Conservation Specialist of GTZ-Amhara Sustainable Land Management Program. Belayneh Adugna said:

The progress made so far to scale-up the Vetiver System in Amhara region is promising. Many government and non government organizations who are working in the area of soil and water conservation are giving due attention to promote Vetiver as the best solution for agricultural development and natural resources conservation. Vetiver nurseries are established in each corner of the region. Even private farmers are producing Vetiver planting materials and generating income by selling Vetiver seedlings.

Moreover, the Vetiver System is the top in the agenda of options for sustainable land management and included in the governments extension technologies package. So, I am sure we can make a difference in this country through the application of the Vetiver System. Actually we need to do a lot of capacity building works at all levels.

Dick Grimshaw commented: "It is a real pleasure to see the progress being made in Ethiopia with the continued expansion of the Vetiver System for soil and water conservation. There is a lot written and talked about relating to combating climate change in Africa and improving agricultural production.

"The possibilities of irrigation are very limited as compared to south and east Asia. Africa has to optimize her rain-fed agriculture - a primary concern must be erosion control, soil nutrient retention, and in-situ soil and water conservation. The Vetiver System is proving to be the least costly and most effective method of achieving these objectives. If widely applied it might indeed prove to be a precursor to a new "Green Revolution" for tropical agriculture."

I am hoping that the rest of the world will not wait for near-disaster conditions before implementing sensible soil conservation practices. Anybody else listening?

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OK, I am guilty as charged. With thousands of Vetiver plants in my nursery and hundreds of others doing their conservation job around my farm, I too forget what an attractive plant this can be in a formal or tropical garden. I train my plants to survive in the harshest environments with almost nonexistent water, fertilization, and love. I am used to seeing them look scrawny and angry from neglect, but I know that I can count on them to do their job without a complaint.

Lately, I have been planting a few short rows near the house as part of our landscaping. At the risk of establishing a bad precedent with the not-so-lucky rest of the pack, these puppies get regular sprinkling, fertilizing, and trimming. That is when you realize that this lush, green grass can hold its own against any of the more popular decorative grasses that you pay so much more for.

I do not expect to see gardening books written about Vetiver, but my good friend Tony Cisse, editor of the blog Pepiniere Naaj Baal in Senegal created a document called Vetiver Grass for Landscaping with a great photo collection. We have three and six-plant packs in our store that enjoy in your garden. Try it out . . .

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Where Wikipedia Ends - That is the link to the article in the September 28, 2009 issue of TIME magazine reflecting on the slowing down of the growth in Wikipedia content. Many explanations are discussed, but the core problem is that, " . . . as Wikipedia has added layers of control to bolster accuracy and fairness, it has developed a kind of bureaucracy." TIME also stated that "Over time, though, a class system emerged; now revisions made by infrequent contributors are much likelier to be undone by élite Wikipedians."

Tell me about it! This past April, one of these élite storm troopers took it upon himself to break up the Vetiver information into separate entries about the Vetiver plant and the Vetiver System. In itself, this was not a bad idea; but in the process, this "editor" removed all the information on the Vetiver System leaving just a stub of little value.

For more than a month I jousted with this self-appointed Wikipoliceman, attempting to restore all the content, references, and links that were there before. At every step, he would undo my work citing unending arguments about copyrights, writing style (I was not being encyclopedic), rules about links and references (no links to blogs or community groups), and many other hurdles that only added to the annoyance and not to the content. In the end, to my frustration, the Wikipedia page for the Vetiver System was left with no more than a lame explanation, no pictures, and few sources of additional information for the reader.

Fortunately, Google has come up with a much friendlier alternative for the publication of documents authored by a joint community of writers. The Google Knols, is a "crowdsourcing" tool based on the publication of full documents - not just encyclopedic entries. In my opinion, the various Vetiver blogs on the Internet should present short and simple discussions of a very focused subject or event. The knols, on the other hand, can provide depth and detail on more complex subjects and be open to community scrutiny and revision.

I am pleased to report that I am authoring a growing collection of knols on the Vetiver plant and the Vetiver System, that I have listed in The Vetiver System Knol Collection. This knol acts as a table of contents to all the other publications about Vetiver and is the recommended entry point to view the articles.

The Internet is about making information easily shared. That is no longer true of Wikipedia, and for me, Google Knols is the place where I will make meaningful information available in the future without unnecessary restrictions. TIME ended by saying, " . . . these changes (in Wikipedia laws) have created a community not very hospitable to newcomers." I could not agree more.

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In my frequent presentations to government agencies and professional groups, I always say that, although Vetiver has been in Puerto Rico for over a 100 years, it arrived without an instruction manual. Since then, the planting methodology known today as the Vetiver System has demonstrated the plant's ability to become an important part of the solution in a soil stabilization problem. Nowhere is this more evident in our island than in our road embankments, where most of the soil has a very high clay content and is very prone to slippage after it becomes saturated with heavy rains.

Not long ago, I was invited to deliver a Vetiver presentation to the design engineers of our Highways Authority, an agency within the Department of Transportation and Public Works. Instead of the two persons that I expected at that meeting, I was privileged to have an audience of nineteen. Within two weeks we were involved in a project on Road 30, a major highway where a low point in the road spills a high volume of water over a steep embankment.

Although this project was close to completion near the town of Las Piedras, the Highways Authority, asked their contractor, Constructora Hartmann, to additionally protect the gabion structures and soil fill by adding 4000 Vetiver plants in strategically planted rows that will provide added stability and contain soil erosion over the surface of the reconstructed slopes.

Engineer Enrique Hartmann, and his namesake father made sure that their staff attained proficiency in the proper planting techniques in accordance with the Vetiver System guidelines. The attached picture and more in this additional Picasa Album attest to this well-done job. I feel confident that this first trial of the Vetiver plant in a major road stabilization project will provide the validation needed for its widespread acceptance. I will update this blog in the future with more pictures and results.

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As evidence mounts on the effect of the increased amounts of carbon dioxide on global warming, the world looks for alternative methods to mitigate the problem. Because of its longevity and extraordinary root mass, Vetiver is becoming one of the leading contenders for carbon sequestration. This bioengineering application of Vetiver accomplishes the long-term storage of carbon dioxide or other forms of carbon through biological processes. With Vetiver, carbon products are extracted from the atmosphere through photosynthesis and stored permanently in its root mass.

An article published in the September issue of Current Science titled Sequestration of atmospheric carbon into subsoil horizons through deep-rooted grasses – Vetiver Grass Model (PDF) , states in its preamble:

Choosing the strategies to mitigate global warming should envisage sustenance of soil carbon sink, and also long-term locking of excess carbon deep into the soil horizon. Fast growing grasses with penetrating deep root system would facilitate long-term locking of atmospheric carbon below plough layer with reduced chances of being recycled to atmosphere and recuperate soil carbon sink. Vetiver, a non-invasive C4 grass with fast-growing tufted root system, reaching 3 m just in one year could be an ideal global candidate with a holding potential of 1 kg atmospheric carbon, sequestered annually deep into the soil pool from one sq metre surface area.

Another document from the European Union, Climate change: Commission dishes the dirt on the importance of soil (PDF), raises a red flag about damaging the remaining carbon reservoirs by not protecting Europe's forests and peat bogs. You can read about the complete European Union thematic strategy on soils in the pages from the European Commission.

In tropical and subtropical climates, Vetiver is a clear alternative for increasing these carbon storages, while at the same time providing a soil conservation and stabilization solution in many scenarios. We can all do our part by using and promoting Vetiver in our homes and neighborhoods, and encouraging our USA government agencies to catch up with the rest of the world.

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