Noel Vietmeyer
U.S. National Research Council
For all its great merits vetiver has a major problem: it just isn't going to make many
millionaires. Were it capable of creating lots of money for individuals, we vetiver
specialists could retire to our laboratories, offices and test plots strong in the
conviction that others would eagerly turn all our results and visions into practical
benefits.
But the reality is that people of extraordinary conviction and vision, such as His Majesty
the King, are the only ones going to dedicate their energies to moving vetiver upward and
outward to its global destiny. As a result, we cannot go back to our research and expect
that this immensely useful plant will advance into widespread acceptance by some sort of
global osmosis. We vetiver champions must now shoulder the burden of selling the vetiver
idea to people of influence worldwide.
And this brings up a second problem: vetiver is so good at doing so many things that our
immediate challenge is an organizational one. Even we vetiver specialists become
overwhelmed by the sheer breadth of the vision we see. And if we are confused, think about
how baffling our story must be to those newcomers whom we must bring on board to achieve a
successful global outcome.
To help bring some measure of order to our collective vision, as well as to boost the
crop's advancement, I'd like to suggest that we move vetiver forward by means of the
following initiatives.
These initiatives are more than just ways of thinking about the plant and its promise,
they are compartments of practical progress, each distinct and self-contained within
itself. Of course there are overlapping borders-indeed, a complicated chart could be drawn
showing all the interrelations but for all that, each of these action-oriented topics
plays on different strengths of the grass and reaches out to different audiences. In
addition, each requires a different approach from us as we shoulder our burden of locating
partners for mutual support and for faster progress worldwide.
Let me see if I can explain this better by taking each initiative in turn.
Of all vetiver's applications, controlling soil erosion is by far the best understood and
furthest advanced. Probably 90 percent of all the work to date has been devoted to this
initiative, and the fact that the plant stops soil loss is now abundantly clear, The
effect is due largely to the strength of the stems in hedges placed along the contours of
hillslopes.
I need not dwell on the details here, but I do want to note that this initiative must not
be slackened. Soil erosion is arguably the worst global environmental problem, and for
much of the world it was the least tractable until vetiver came along. All in all, this
grass offers the first practical intervention with worldwide possibilities.
The Soil-Erosion Initiative's next major challenge is to project existing knowledge to new
locations and new people. In a sense, we must bring other nations up to the level of
commitment and action achieved here in Thailand. If we can make perhaps 100 more nations
as committed as this one, the global scourge of soil erosion would mostly be thwarted
within our lifetimes. Of course, some nations are too frozen during winter to consider
vetiver, but the United States is developing a complementary, vetiver-inspired,
grass-hedge technology using cold-climate species.
Bringing about the tantalizing vision of global success against erosion should be the
Soil-Erosion Initiative's aim. The existing vetiver publications are, by and large,
adequate to the task. Farmers and foresters are of course the main audience, but we must
reach out more to engineers and get them to take up vetiver routinely along roadsides,
around construction sites, next to bridge abutments and along pipelines. Also we need to
reach city officials so that vetiver gets put to use stopping erosion in the squatter
settlements, stormwater drains and other urban sites.
In addition, environmental scientists and conservation watchdog groups need to be made
aware that vetiver is now a promising answer to the soil that washes into their natural
preserves. They could, for example, push for the regional employment of vetiver hedges to
reduce the water-borne silt that devastates coral reefs, fish-spawning grounds and various
other irreplaceable habitats. Three examples worth vigorous action are:
The Everglades. The delicate balance of this irreplaceable habitat in Florida is being
upset by phosphate and other nutrients washing out of nearby sugarcane fields. To me, the
solution lies in surrounding the canefields with vetiver hedges. Those hedges would trap
the silt (along with the phosphate clinging to it) and absorb soluble nutrients before the
water ever passes into the Everglades.
Lake Victoria. This large lake in the heart of Africa is suffering explosive blooms of
water hyacinth. I'm informed that the problem has been linked to nutrient-laden silt
washing off the land and fertilizing the weed. A regional vetiver-planting campaign in the
watersheds serving the problem locations, might immeasurably benefit the lake, not to
mention the watersheds themselves.
East Africa Coast. The grass might also prove useful in watersheds in eastern Kenya, where
silt washing off the land is killing a priceless coral reef.
The primary challenge in this initiative is not erosion control; it is instead to make
extreme soils productive, or at least more productive than at present. This is also an
important challenge. Vast areas of the earth - typically classified as "marginal
lands," "waste lands," or "abandoned lands"- are inadequately
used because they are just too hard to harness for crop production.
A truly amazing aspect of vetiver is its ability to survive on sites so hostile toward
plant life that people now universally write them off as impossible to cultivate. The
relevant feature in this case has to do with the plant's root chemistry. We know from
experiments and observations that vetiver grows in acid soil, alkaline soil, laterite,
vertisol, toxic mine spoil, moderately saline soil, wetland and dryland soil, and even
soils so dense they are likened, not inaccurately, to "concrete".
That vetiver can survive in such sites may at first sight seem just incidental, but having
an adaptable and well-behaved plant that stays neatly in place is probably the missing key
to mitigating the harshness of many now barren lands. Vetiver hedges in this case would be
deployed as vegetative shock troops to seize a botanical bridgehead on the hostile site
and open the way for other species to follow.
It seems likely that the lines of solid plant cover will indeed help get the restoration
process started. Already the effect can be seen in many places. In Louisiana, for example,
barren washes quickly fill with native vegetation after vetiver hedges stabilize the area.
In northern India, sodic wastes were turned into luxuriant forests once vetiver hedges
were in place. And in southern India, forests have been seen to colonize hillsides after
vetiver hedges provided some protection.
This particular use of vetiver is hardly well known, and it deserves its own dedicated
initiative. Research, testing and a comparison of experiences are all needed in a wealth
of difficult sites. Globally important extreme soils to include from the beginning are
vertisols, laterites, saline and sodic types. Get people excited about any of those and
you'll really make a difference to vetiver and the world. The "laterite" that
dominates the lowland tropics is an especially potent challenge. That particular type of
soil - red in color, very acid and high in soluble aluminum, a deadly toxin to most plants
- has long been considered beyond the possibility of high-yield farming, but the fact that
vetiver survives (even thrives) in laterite could turn out to be one of the great
breakthroughs for tropical agriculture and forestry.
Combinations of vetiver hedges with appropriate leguminous cover crops that renovate
infertile land between the hedges need especial consideration, That one-two punch, based
on a natural succession of the vetiver pioneer and the nitrogen-fixing successor, should
open the doors to routine development of many now unusable sites. The combination with
laterite-tolerant leguminous trees, such as Acacia mangium, could also be a powerful
intervention.
Taken all round the Extreme-Soil Initiative is a way to "sell" vetiver to a new
set of clients for whom soil erosion is not a main concern. Examples are land-use
planners, international donors, economists, policymakers, governmnent administrators and
others worried over population pressures and immediate food supplies. In principle,
hundreds of millions of hectares of now unused lands could be rejuvenated to support more
people and more crops. Turning wastelands into farmlands would, in addition, be a way to
save more natural forests from slash-and-burn destruction.
The fact that vetiver hedges are dense enough to dam up water is yet another distinct
feature. The effect is due to the plant's stems and myriad leaves, as well as to the soil
and litter that collect behind a hedge. The effect is more sophisticated than people
imagine; a vetiver hedge handles different depths of water in different ways. A modest,
ground-level runoff hitting one of those hedges gets ponded, but a rushing torrent passes
through with increasing ease as it rises past the point where the leaves splay outward. An
established hedge, seldom gets knocked down, and its variable-filter feature-damming up
groundlevel flows but progressively passing more water the deeper it gets-is an important
one.
Professionals and policymakers involved in water issues are unaware that vetiver can help
their efforts. This Water-Management Initiative needs to reach out and show them what they
have to gain. Things to highlight include the following.
Watershed Management. By holding silt and water on hillslopes, vetiver hedges
should be able to protect entire watersheds the way the original forests did. This would
not only reduce soil loss and river sedimentation, but by keeping water on the land,
vetiver would recharge groundwater supplies. Work in Malaysia shows that by using plants
raised in pots, the hedges can become functioning barriers within weeks of being planted
out. This holds the possibility of creating "instant" working watersheds over
vast areas at modest cost. It would also mean that people might be able to stay living on
the watersheds without severely affecting the area's vital hydrologic importance.
Waterway Stabilization. Vetiver planted along streams, river banks, canals, drains
and ditches can help keep out silt, maintain the flow and prevent the banks from being
undermined. This means, among other things, that capital investments in water supplies
will be protected and enhanced.
Reinforcing. This coarse grass with its roots like chicken mesh projecting several
meters into the soil probably can strengthen earthen structures such as small dams and
dikes. Following the disastrous Mississippi floods of 1993, it was reported that all
levees protected by switchgrass remained unbroken. Vetiver should do at least as well
because it is endowed with a better root and stem architecture for the task.
Sediment Control. Waterside "walls" of vetiver hedge, grown on the banks
of reservoirs, would provide ideal holding "pens" for dredge spoil. By allowing
the water to filter back into the reservoir, these cheap, porous barriers would make it
feasible to isolate the solids for economic handling by people or machine. Such selfrising
silt-traps might help rescue reservoirs serving cities such as San Juan, Puerto Rico and
Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Those reservoirs, along with many more in the tropics, are fast
silting up and prematurely losing their capacity to hold water or generate electricity. Of
course, the whole siltation process should be slowed with vetiver hedges on the
watersheds.
Engineering Water Flow. Vetiver hedges can be employed not only to retard runoff
but to direct water toward, away from or through some given point. Hedges angled down
slopes, for instance, would divert water away from sites such as unstable cliffs. For the
cost of a few tillers and a planting effort, hydrologists and engineers could harness
nature to achieve water shedding or water harvesting or other forms of water control.
Wastewater Treatment. Probably there is no better species for stripping nutrients
out of domestic (and perhaps industrial) wastewater. A native of a wetland enviromnent,
vetiver withstands long immersion. Hedges grown across or around man-made marshes would
likely block the passage of solids, strip out dissolved nutrients and detoxify pathogenic
microbes through aeration or detention. By providing simple, compact water-treatment
facilities that require no chemicals or pumps, vetiver could create a new and cheap form
of tertiary wastewater treatment for the countries of the "Vetiver Zone." In
return, these wastewater treatment facilities could become vetiver nurseries. Fertilized
by the wastewater nutrients, the plants should throw off tillers in abundance. Employing
human wastes to grow vetiver for planting where it can do good for people and the
environment is a new and especially elegant notion of recycling.
In sum, this Water-Management Initiative could elevate vetiver into a
tool for providing more reliable water supplies, reinforcing earthen dams, protecting
riverbanks, treating domestic wastewater and much more. In selling the idea to
hydrologists, sanitary engineers, public health specialists and so forth, a few
spectacular successes could make all the difference. The Panama Canal, for one, would be a
great showcase. Today, ship wakes erode parts of the canal banks, but vetiver hedges would
absorb the swells and allow ship traffic to speed up, thereby increasing the canal's
throughput and economy. Moreover, contour hedges on the surrounding bills and mountains
would retard rainfall runoff, recharge groundwater supplies and probably restore the
Chagres River to high year-round flow as in the days when those watersheds were fully clad
in forest.
Although vetiver has many potential uses in pollution control, none is being vigorously
developed or promoted. The initiative needed here, is to reach out to governments,
environmental scientists, industry and organizations concerned over cleaning up messes
people or their institutions have left behind. Also, vetiver might be employed to prevrnt
future messes from occurring or at least from spreading. A few examples of what vetiver
might help clean up are given below.
Underground Flows. Surrounding polluted sites with vetiver hedges may well be a way
to keep toxic compounds from moving outward underground. The massive, curtain-like
"hangings" of interwoven roots seem ideally structured to filter out underground
contaminants. If the plant can keep deadly pollutants corralled and unable to move outward
and contaminate new ground, vetiver will have earned a place in everyone's gratitude.
Soil. Paul Truong's magnificent work in Australia has shown that vetiver is
tolerant of high levels of arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper and nickel. The plant
therefore seems highly suitable for rehabilitating and reclaiming lands contaminated by
heavy metals, as well as perhaps by radionuclcides and similar horrors resulting from
mining, other industries, research facilities, landfills or other waste dumps.
Industrial Spills. No one has reported trying vetiver hedges against spills of
industrial liquids, but it seems to me that a series of these very dense hedges would
provide a cheap and probably effective backup protection against small spills at least. It
would hardly matter if the hedge died, it could be easily replaced. Even crude oil might
be held back. Indeed the oil-soaked vegetation could be burned for furnace fuel.
Runoff. As mentioned above, vetiver hedges could block nutrient-laden runoff. Such
runoff from farms, industry, cities, landfills and even golf courses is a rising concern
these days. Vetiver hedges could be especially useful as a "filtration barrier"
around such sites, as well as around ponds and marshes built to contain or detain nunoff.
In the case of cities, contaminated stormwater is a particular concern.
Natural Waters. Hydroponics might be a way to use vetiver hedges to filter
dangerous materials out of surface waters. This is a speculative and untested idea but, as
noted, the plant is at home in watery conditions. In one form of hydroponics, the plants
would be grown in an inert and highly pervious material through which the waters would
pass. In another, vetiver might be grown with its massive roots dangling free in the
water. This far-out idea, which works for other plants, requires something (old tires
perhaps) to keep the vetivers from sinking. Floating hedges might even be deployed across
streams or canals to strip pollutants and dissolved nutrients out of the water passing by.
This water-bome process might even prove a convenient way of growing vetiver roots for oil
extraction (no digging needed, just clip off the root ends when they get too long).
Industrial Wastewater. I've already mentioned the possibility of treating human
wastes in man-made vetiver-filled wetlands. This non-chemical wastewater treatment also
seem promising for cleaning waste products from aquaculture. It is already removing
nutrients from trout-farm effluent in trials at a U.S. Department of Agriculture research
facility in West Virginia.
Taken all round, this Pollution-Control Initiative opens up vetiver applications relating
to some of the best fielded areas of research, with billions being spent in the United
States alone. But the use of the grass is not currently a part of the experts' thinking.
To correct that, vetiver needs to be tested widely in polluted sites, and fast. A success
or two could launch vetiver into big-time and well funded applications. In fact it would
transform the world's appreciation of the plant overnight. In people's minds, a tool for
removing deadly toxic hazards is something quite different from a tool to control soil
erosion on foreign farms. A change of attitude like that would help everything.
Unless farmers deeply appreciate the plant and fully recognize that they are benefiting
from it daily, we'll always have to struggle to get vetiver hedges on the land. So, while
we're emphasizing grand global problem-solving, such as those I've mentioned above, we've
got to keep the farmers eagerly planting vetiver for themselves and for a surplus to sell.
To assure this we need special efforts to get worldwide appreciation for the benefits to
growers. Many farners won't plant anything new just for erosion control, but they will
eagerly tend a crop that provides income or makes their lives easier or more secure. Here
are some features of vetiver that provide salable products or a better life for farm
families.
Handicrafts. Vetiver's bamboo-like stems are ideal for making baskets and other
small items.
Thatch. The leaves make one of the longest lasting and most beautiful roofs.
Supplementary Feed. Although not a great feedstuff, vetiver is better than many
give it credit for.
Improved Crop Yields. Holding moisture back fosters better crop growth and helps
keep wells filled.
Wildlife Controls. Pests such as rodents and Africa's grain-devouring quelea bird
might be kept out of crops. The birds, for example, like to roost in blocks of tall grass,
and there can be trapped in the dark of night.
Mulch. The leaves create a long-lived mulch that helps garden plants survive
adversity.
Windbreaks. Standing up to 3 m tall, vetiver is ideally structured to resist the wind.
Boundary Markers. Several African nations recognize property lines demarked by
vetiver because it stays in such a narrow band.
"Air-conditioning." Mats woven of vetiver roots are placed over window
openings and doused with water cool millions of India's houses. Breezes passing through
are both chilled and perfumed. This could have wider potential than now imagined.
Ornamentals. In Miami, vetiver plants are being taken up for their beauty and good
behavior in the landscape.
Screening. The tall, dense hedges are a way to provide a measure of privacy around
houses, latrines, etc.
Animal Protection. Corrals and shelters for small creatures such as chickens seem a
possibility.
Traffic Control. Vetiver can be employed to orient where people and animals walk
and where vehicles drive. For instance, it can keep them off unstable banks.
Self-Rising Utility Walls. Circles of vetiver might be used to enclose compost
piles, trash heaps, farm gardens, fish ponds and more.
Weed Prevention. The hedges are said to prevent creeping weeds, such as Bahia
grass, from invading gardens.
Making Steep Slopes Usable. Hedges across slopes make it possible to work where now
even standing is difficult and everything washes away with the rains.
All of these farmer advantages need to be developed and exploited throughout vetiver
country. They should be brought together in extension literature. In thi case, the
extension publications might mention erosion-prevention, but their more immediate purpose
is to stress benefits to the farmers' daily existence. In addition, commercial markets for
vetiver tillers, handicrafts, thatch, "air-conditioning" mats and other products
need to be advanced. Rather than establish centralized nurseries, a commerce in
farmer-supplied planting materials should be encouraged.
Given the deep roots, high tops and thick hedges, as well as the promise of practical
large-scale application, it seems obvious that this grass could play a role in mitigating
(and perhaps preventing) various natural disasters.
This topic, speaking technically, overlaps water management and soil-erosion control, but
speaking in the political and humanitarian sense, the topic of disaster prevention takes
vetiver into a different ministry and makes it of interest to different industries. Here
the ultimate goal is not just to control water and retain soil, but to save lives and
reduce property damage. The Disaster-Prevention Initiative, then, is a way to reach out to
governments, the worldwide insurance business, mortgage lenders and more. Here are some
possibilities where vetiver might make the difference,
Mudslides. The stiff, strong tops of vetiver hedges stop mud and debris from
passing by. The massive underground walls of interlocking roots seem likely to stop slopes
from slumping. The plant should operate on an essentially permanent basis.
Floods. I've already mentioned how vetiver hedges may be planted in ways that rob
floodwaters of the power to cause destruction, and that the hedges can hold rainfall on
the watersheds.
Fires. In South Africa it has been found that burning off the hedges at the end of
the wet season results in a flush of growth that stays succulent through the dry season.
The forest-insurance industry has accepted this band of green vegetation as an effective
firebreak.
Droughts. By helping extend groundwater- and surface water supplies (as mentioned
above in watershed and reservoirs, for instance), vetiver should be able to benefit
drought-prone areas.
Earthen Structures. Some (many?) earthen structures are in danger of collapse. A
decade or two ago a dam in the hills above Los Angeles broke, releasing a deluge that
caused immense property damage and some deaths. Vetiver appears to have potential to be an
inexpensive reinforcing to strengthen such structures. Levees around New Orleans and along
the lower Mississippi are likely candidates known to me. Were they to break, the
devastation would be immense.
We cannot be certain about vetiver's utility in any of these undertakings, but the
authorities charged with disaster prevention should be given a chance to put vetiver to
the test. Whatever is done to prevent disasters will have to be done over vast areas, and
vetiver seems more suited than other possibilities, such as those employing concrete and
steel.
This use of vetiver in emergency management would come clear to the appropriate
authorities and businesses if it were employed on some high-profile sites. An example
might be Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines where the massive landslides of volcanic debris
are inundating towns and villages. In addition, disastrous mudsildes have in the last few
years caused deaths and/or destruction in Puerto Rico, Haiti, Leyte in the Philippines and
Malibu in Southern California. All those locations seem ideal for vigorous vetiver growth.
In addition, the Mekong watershed might be tackled as an international vetiver-planting
testbed. The idea would be to keep silt out of the river and future floodwaters out of
people's houses. Return the critical upland slopes to the hydrological state they enjoyed
when fully forested, and perhaps Thailand's terrible floods can be a thing only of memory,
A similar, but even bigger challenge, would be the protection of Bangladesh from Himalayan
floodwaters. Such a mission might seem to be too vast to be possible, but vetiver would be
a better place to start than anything else I can conceive of.
For all our experience, the truth is we still don't know much about how the plant ticks.
Yet the workings of vetiver are what underpins everything. What makes it work so well at
so many things? In this regard, how does it differ from other plants? These and many more
question need answering.
In this Basic-Science Initiative the audience is specialists such plant physiologists,
microbiologists and agrostologists (grass scientists). The topics here relate to pure
science, rather than strictly to practical affairs.
Areas for basic-science investigation include the following.
C02 Absorption. In this era of global warming scare, it is important to measure how
much greenhouse gas vetiver stores in its massive roots.
C-13 Absorption. Is vetiver, like corn, an accumulator of this uncommon isotope?
Taxonomy. What exactly is the relation between the sterile domesticated plants and
the seedy wild ones?
Translocation of Oxygen. Rice survives in flooded paddies because it moves oxygen
down into its roots. Vetiver also survives in paddie's. Can it do the same oxygen
transfer?
Heavy Metals. How well do pollutants move upward from the roots to the leaves? Is
Yetiver a "super-bioaccumulator"?
Disease Prevention. The plant is remarkably healthy, but let's get breeding and
selection programs going so we don't got caught short if an outbreak occurs.
Mechanism of sterility. Why is the plant sterile? How reliable is that sterility?
Genetic Diversity. What are different types of vetiver? Are some better adapted for
the various purposes than others?
Mycorrhiza. These fungi that colonize roots probably are one of the keys to the
plant's survival in extreme sites. We need to know more.
Nitrogen Fixation. Does vetiver survive on barren sites because, like a few other
grasses, it has a symbiosis with nitrogen-fixing bacteria?
Cold Sensitivity. This is perhaps the biggest limitation for temperate zone
countries such as the United States. Can it be reduced or overcome?
General Tolerances. What are the theoretical limits to drought, water, and toxic
conditions? What can be expected in practice?
Mechanism of Hedge Formation. Why do the plants in a hedge tend to interlock when
most grasses stay in separate clumps?
Dwarfing. Can shorter hedges be obtained?
Root Growth. Just how strong are those reinforcings in the soil?
With topics such as these we need to reach out to scientists in the appropriate fields and
show them how, through vetiver, their expertise can have a practical global importance.
This is one area where vetiver specialists have the possibility of finding research
partners likely to devote time and energy without much cajoling. This is because in the
grass family vetiver falls between sugarcane, sorghum and corn, which rneans that it
probably has much to contribute to the better understanding of those billion-dollar
natural resources. Researchers studying the basics of sorghum, corn, and sugarcane are
natural allies of ours.
Breaking up the subject into these seven initiatives, can help generate funding,
collaboration, innovation and new progress, More importantly, perhaps, it will inject
backgrounds and special insights. No longer will vetiver be the exclusive of
agriculturists; sharing our excitement will be environmentalists, chemists, engineers,
hydrologists, and more. By this process of reaching out, vetiver champions can speak in
seven voices, in seven forums, and stimulate outward momentum in seven directions. Also,
it will give us feedback from seven different outlying visions that we now glimpse only
vaguely, if at all. That will help us better use this immensely useful plant, and that
will help the people of the world most of all.