NEWSLETTERS & POSTS

Vetiver System — Guides and Design Standards: Module C Refreshed: Vetiver for Wastewater, Effluent. and Pollution Control

Use Them Now, and Help Us Make Them Standards. TVNI has completed a full review and revision of Module C of the Guides and Standards suite — the module that covers wastewater, effluent and pollution control. The module now runs to ten entries, and every one has been reviewed. The former Coffee Effluent and Oil Palm standards have been consolidated into a single plantation guide; the Tertiary Treatment and Flower Effluent standards have each been reissued at guide level; a new plain-language companion has been added for the people who actually operate the systems; the Landfill standard has been revised and reissued; and a Floating Islands guide has joined the module.… Read the rest “Vetiver System — Guides and Design Standards: Module C Refreshed: Vetiver for Wastewater, Effluent. and Pollution Control”
Dick Grimshaw
0
Comments
Labels: Phytoremediation, pollution, urban, wastewater, water qualityTagged , , , , , , , , ,

A Poor Man’s Irrigation System – The Remarkable Hydraulics of a Vetiver Hedge

How a closed hedge spreads water, sorts sediment, and hands nitrogen and phosphorus to the crop below — and why a leaky one does the reverse I have described a properly functioning vetiver hedge as a poor man’s irrigation system for a long time. It was meant as a way of explaining to a farmer what the hedge does with rainfall: it takes water that would have run off in a few destructive channels and instead gives it back to the field, spread out, where the crop can use it.… Read the rest “A Poor Man’s Irrigation System – The Remarkable Hydraulics of a Vetiver Hedge”
Dick Grimshaw
0
Comments
Labels: agricultureTagged , , , , , , ,

Two New Papers: Why Vetiver Spreads Through Channels, and How to Build a Vetiver Service Company

TVNI has issued two companion papers for discussion. “From Proof to Practice” asks why a technology this well proven has been adopted so slowly, and finds that the lag is structural rather than informational. “Establishing a Vetiver Service Company” takes the main conclusion of that diagnosis — that firms, not arguments, are what carry a technology — and sets out how to build one. This post continues a discussion started in my recent post dated September 4, 2026.… Read the rest “Two New Papers: Why Vetiver Spreads Through Channels, and How to Build a Vetiver Service Company”
Dick Grimshaw
0
Comments
Labels: management, policyTagged , , ,

How the updated VGT design standards underwrite a two-wing vetiver service company

Updated Design Standards and Specifications What the revisions mean for your work The design standards, guides and specifications listed in the design spec table are there to support your work with vetiver — whether you use them as an individual, as a company, or as an organization providing vetiver services. The early versions of some of these standards were not tight designs backed by verified information. Since June of this year I have been revising them — not all of them yet, but a good many — and the revised versions are considerably tighter.… Read the rest “How the updated VGT design standards underwrite a two-wing vetiver service company”
Dick Grimshaw
0
Comments
Labels: uncategorized

NEWSLETTER (NL2026-08): ICV-8; TVNI Awards Announcement; UN International Year of the Woman Farmer; Vetiver Research News; UN Assessment: Vetiver First Among Malawi’s Erosion Controls

Dates for the 8th International Conference on Vetiver (ICV-8) Announced The following is an official announcement from the India Vetiver Foundation: The India Vetiver Foundation (IVF) is proud to announce that India will host the Eighth International Conference on Vetiver (ICV-8) in Chennai from 12 to 14 May 2027. The conference will bring together researchers, farmers, policymakers, and practitioners from across the world to advance the science, cultivation, and application of vetiver grass for soil and water conservation, environmental restoration, bioenergy, and rural livelihoods.… Read the rest “NEWSLETTER (NL2026-08): ICV-8; TVNI Awards Announcement; UN International Year of the Woman Farmer; Vetiver Research News; UN Assessment: Vetiver First Among Malawi’s Erosion Controls”
Jim Smyle
2
Comments
Labels: agriculture, benefit/cost, economics, erosion, Gender, ICV-8, Network News, Research, upscaling vetiverTagged , , , , ,

The Hedge That Pays Twice – You May Want To Rethink Your Composting Strategy

The Hedge That Pays Twice How vetiver grass and its mulch cut farm costs and keep crops alive when the weather turns extreme Ask any farmer what has changed in the last decade and you will hear the same answer on every continent: the weather no longer behaves. Rains arrive late, then fall all at once. Dry spells stretch two weeks longer than they used to. Soil that took generations to build washes away in a single afternoon storm.… Read the rest “The Hedge That Pays Twice – You May Want To Rethink Your Composting Strategy”
Dick Grimshaw
1
Comments
Labels: agriculture, climate change, climate change adaptation, design standards, erosion, forage, Vineyards, waterTagged , , , , , ,

Floating Islands That Work

Floating Islands That Work: TVNI’s Revised Vetiver Floating Island Specification v2.1 A Vetiver Floating Island is a simple idea: a buoyant raft planted with vetiver grass, anchored on a polluted pond or lagoon, with the plant’s dense vertical roots hanging one to two meters into the water. The root curtain takes up nitrogen, phosphorus, and ammonia, hosts the microbial biofilms that do much of the treatment work, traps sediment, shades out algae, and shelters fish. TVNI has just issued a fully revised design specification for these systems, and the revision changes some long-standing assumptions.… Read the rest “Floating Islands That Work”
Dick Grimshaw
0
Comments
Labels: health, Phytoremediation, pollution, wastewater, water, water qualityTagged , , , , , , , , ,

Not Every Vetiver Job Needs a Hedge

A new quick-reference sheet on choosing the right layout — and a request for corrections A farmer has a patch of low, wet ground where only rice will grow. He plants a contour hedge across it, because a hedge is what vetiver looks like. Not much happens. There was no runoff for the hedge to intercept. The problem was a water table sitting just below the surface, and what that ground needed was vetiver planted in a block, to open the profile and let the water drain away.… Read the rest “Not Every Vetiver Job Needs a Hedge”
Dick Grimshaw
1
Comments
Labels: agriculture, climate change, design standards, erosion, Hydrology, slope stabilization, water

Water First — Think Water, Then Erosion

The Vetiver and Water foundation note — and why the order matters Ask most people what vetiver does and they will say it stops erosion. That is true, and it is the wrong place to start. Everything a vetiver hedge achieves begins with what it does to moving water. Slow it, spread it across the slope, let it soak in — and the sediment that builds the terrace, the moisture that reaches the crop, the strengthened ground and the soil life beneath it all follow from that.… Read the rest “Water First — Think Water, Then Erosion”
Dick Grimshaw
1
Comments
Labels: agriculture, climate change, erosion, Hydrology, land restoration, uncategorized, waterTagged , , , , , ,