VETIVER GRASS TECHNOLOGY DESCRIPTION
CONTAMINATED LAND & WATER
A Tool for Individuals and Commmunities
Vetiver grass provides a low cost means to adapt to the challenge of climate change – an overview
VETIVER PLANTS - SUPPLIERS
OTHER USES OF VETIVER GRASS
The Vetiver Network International (TVNI) is a global nonprofit dedicated to promoting the Vetiver System and its core nature based Vetiver Grass Technology (VGT)—Chrysopogon zizanioides—to restore degraded land, conserve water, protect infrastructure, and build climate resilience. Through a decentralized network of volunteers, practitioners, researchers, and community leaders in over 100 countries, TVNI empowers local solutions to global challenges.
We advance sustainable development by applying vetiver grass technology across diverse landscapes—from farms and flood-prone slopes to polluted sites and urban infrastructure—delivering practical benefits such as erosion control, soil regeneration, disaster risk reduction, and economic opportunity through handicrafts and biomass.
Founded in 1995 by Richard Grimshaw, TVNI builds on World Bank-supported research and a scientific foundation rooted in hydrology, soil mechanics, and plant ecology. Our open-source, volunteer-driven model fosters collaboration, innovation, and knowledge sharing—without central management or paid staff.
TVNI supports the achievement of key Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including Zero Hunger (SDG 2), Clean Water (SDG 6), Climate Action (SDG 13), and Life on Land (SDG 15), while offering accessible educational resources, field-tested guides, and community-driven success stories.
TVNI history, achievements and time line presentation
Newsletter (NL2026-02) — A belated February newsletter & Global Water Bankruptcy, Patricia Tello Reátegui, Potential Funding Opportunities for VS Practitioners, VS Academic Visibility, Slope steepness & rooting, and others….
Our February Newsletter is coming out quite late for technical reasons: we have just migrated the TVNI website from its long time host, CSS Communications (of Bellingham, Washington) to a new host and so were “down” during the transfer. As...
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WORLD WATER DAY. AND THE WORLD IS RUNNING OUT OF WATER IN THE GROUND.
Not because it isn’t raining. Because we have spent seventy years building systems designed to move rainfall off the land as fast as possible — graded terraces, drainage channels, sealed surfaces — and into rivers that carry it to the...
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Vetiver Grass Technology (VGT) for Engineered Slopes: A Fully Integrated Bio Hydro Mechanical Stabilization System
“Use geofabrics only when risk demands it — vetiver does the heavy lifting.” “Why pay 5 times more for geofabrics when vetiver does the real work?” “Vetiver isn’t vegetation — it’s bio‑engineering that stops slope failure.” Across the world’s highways,...
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