Vetiver for erosion control

What to do?


Peace Corps volunteers don’t go different country, a different culture, and frequently a different climate (tropical) to solve problems for people. We also don’t ride white horses, but that is likely some safety and security issue.

We bring our our training, knowledge, and experience to smart people so they can develop their own solutions. These people have likely already faced and solved more problems than we can ever know.

After a lot of watching and listening we ask, “have you ever tried this” and “did you know about such and such”. We say “some people have found this other way also works”, rather than “do it my way”. We can bring some additional resources, but our budget has never been one that we throw money at a problem. We work best when the people make their own decisions, do the work, implement solutions and sustainable change to make their lives and our world better.

With this in mind, I turn to describing situations and methods that might be applied to improve some situations made worse by global warming.

Erosion.


 I’ve been on Grenada for over a year. I am confronted by erosion daily as a I walk to and from school. Munich is exporting its land to the valleys and the ocean below. Bus rides after heavy rains and the massive slides that cover half the road indicate that Munich is not unique. (This is a followup to a previous post.)  Although I could not get a picture I saw on one flight after a heavy rain the large brown/red erosion clouds of silt from each stream along the coast into the ocean.

Rain finds paths around boulders and over loose soil without vegetation to create furrows. Even with vegetation, the loose soil can become super saturated and slide on steeper slopes.

Global warming increases the risk of erosion by increasing the frequency of heavy rains. Heavy rains and heavy erosion leads to flooding and loss of productive agricultural land along with the loss of buildings, and lives.

Small erosion next to my house

Human activities can increase or decrease the amount of erosion. Some of the more obvious activities are:

  • Removing plants that hold the soil in place, such as on embankments
  • Cultivating on steep slopes
  • Mining or building on steep slopes
On islands like Dominica where more the 85% of the land has a slope greater than 20° people are forced to use sloping lands. Extra care is therefore needed to minimize damage.
Freshly planted plot behind my house - :-(

Vetiver


A deep rooted stiff grass from India has long been used around the world to reduce erosion. In fact, it has been used for so long, introduced in the Caribbean in the 1950s or earlier, and has worked so well that some people have forgotten its benefits and purpose for being there in the first place.

The rows of vetiver along the contour lines protecting fields and on embankments protecting roads have sometimes been pulled up and discarded across the Caribbean islands because it’s in the way. This is exactly the wrong thing to do when we expect heavier rains and storms. Governments and individuals should reeducate the public on the benefits of vetiver.


One of the palm trees is being eroded from underneath in my neighbor's garden

I know a number of people who have or are considering planting vetiver after I’ve talked about the benefits. It might be useful and profitable for a nursery to provide plants for wide scale planting. For the Peace Corps volunteer and individual the alternate method is to find a bunch of vetiver and get permission to dig part of it up.

This is what I’ve started doing for a neighbor who has a nice garden up on a ridge that is obviously eroding away on the face of the road embankment. The idea is plant rows of vetiver to halt the erosion and to fill across the gullies along the face.

I found vetiver to be very hardy and able to take a lot of punishment during transplanting.  (Vetiver has other uses - such as on oil from the roots, but that is for the reader to research and determine if their site could leverage such benefits.)

Some vetiver dug up, before the tops cut (tops cut back because only a small amount of roots attached

Not ready to plant so I'll let the roots recover in water for a bit.  Manure or compost tea would be helpful
Growing plants in bags before planting would be good. 
But with watering or rain the slips can just be transplanted into a root - 4 inches or closer
On sloping land used for row crops it is beneficial to plant along the contour lines and put rows of vetiver along the slope to trap eroding soil and promote some terracing over time. Some farmers create berms along the contour planted with vetiver in a more terraced fashion before planting. 

Permaculture and no till can also help reduce erosion compared to traditional cultivation methods.

Some land is too steep for row crops but can still be used for tree crops and grazing. I’m going to research tropical pasture grass. This along with seed balls that might turn into a post at some point.


My high tech tools
Finding the contour line is not difficult. I use the high tech method of a line level along with two poles and some string. I also like the bunyip water level – basically a clear plastic tube with colored water and two poles. The important thing to remember to keep each pole vertical. Some people also use an A-frame which requires two long poles and a cross bar all tied together along with a bit of string and a stone. (I’m presuming that a reader will google ideas for more information, rather than supply it in this blog.) All simple and within a Peace Corps budget. Of course laser levels and survey equipment can also be used for those with money to burn.


Cuba -   (vetivernetinternational.blogspot.com)

I don't even know. Kenya - (spiritinaction.org/vetiver-erosion-control/)
I haven’t seen much terracing on the islands. I have read that vetiver planted along the contours of very steep slopes has formed natural terraces several meters high in Fiji. These terraces have lasted for decades with little cost and maintenance. It could improve farm production and might already be used in some places in the Caribbean. As the vetiver and terracing allows more water to be retained on the slopes there might also increased crop production and reduced the chance of fires during the dry season. Well, more looking and asking questions, more research….

Listening to the students
I guess the hat helps him think, doesn't help him see.  Notice he is left handed, but that's not me in the hat.

Love always,
John

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