Category: plant

The Hedge That Changes Everything: How Vetiver Creates a Living Shield for Farms

Across the tropics, farmers are fighting a battle on two fronts: declining soil health and rising pest pressure. For decades, the response has been predictable—more chemicals, deeper tillage, and higher costs. But a quiet revolution is spreading across Africa, Asia,…

From Sixty Plants to System‑Wide Protection: The Vetiver Standard

For nearly 40 years, the Vetiver Grass Technology (VGT) has been recognized worldwide for its unmatched performance in soil conservation, slope stabilization, hydrological protection, and watershed rehabilitation. But one of its most powerful biological functions—its ability to act as a…

Vetiver Grass – The Microbial Engine that drives the Vetiver Grass Technology – Transforming Vetiver Plant Establishment, Perennial Cropping Systems, and Soil Restoration

The Microbial Engine Behind Vetiver’s Exceptional Performance .   Across the tropics, vetiver grass has earned its reputation as one of the world’s most resilient biological tools for soil and water conservation. Its deep, fibrous roots anchor slopes, its dense hedges…

Newsletter (NL 2025-11) – Mine Restoration – Knowledge Resources – Global Voices

From Scarred Mines to Blueberry Fields: A Story of Restoration from South China. In Baisha Town, Yingde City, the scars of illegal rare earth mining once defined the landscape. Jagged rocks and barren soil stretched across Mendong Village’s Fourth Pond,…

Trial on the Potential Use of Vetiver Grass for Engineering Purposes

Led by the late Diti Hengchaovanich of Erocon Sdn Bhd, Kuala Lumpur and supported by   Dr. P.K.Yoon (vetiver researcher and consultant – now 87 years old!), the 1990s vetiver trials on Malaysia’s East–West Highway were conducted along the Gerik–Jeli stretch,…

Vedu and Nachu Thatha’s Vetiver Tale – A Green Gift to the World

Vedu and Nachu Thatha’s Vetiver Tale – A Green Gift to the World.   This downloadable  children’s book by Indian author Lakshminarasimhan Sridhar is very well written, engaging and understandable for young children, and is highly recommended. Here follows an AI…

Newsletter (NL 2025-07) Promoting the Vetiver System, Landscaping, Feedback, Learning from the past

PROMOTING THE VETIVER SYSTEM Getting people to change long used practices, whether they be users or advisor/designers/policy makers, can take many years. You can teach hundreds of people how to use vetiver grass technology, of those hundreds fewer will use...

The Vetiver System – A Changing Perspective. (NL-2024-05/06)

The Vetiver System – A Changing Perspective When John Greenfield and I introduced vetiver grass hedgerows to Indian Watershed development projects in the 1980’s the objective was to replace poorly designed — high maintenance, high cost conservation structures (graded contour…

Critical Info and Data are in these Newsletters!

Vetiver Network News Letters from 1990-2002 This compilation of newsletters created from the originals, the latter were authored by Jim Smyle, Joan Miller, and Dick Grimshaw, record the research and development of the Vetiver Grass Technology following its introduction by…

Up-Scaling Vetiver Grass Technology Using the Internet (TVNI-NL-2024-02)

Up-Scaling Vetiver Grass Technology – Using the Internet One important reason, amongst others, why Vetiver Grass Technology (VGT) is not used more widely is that not enough people know about the plant and its many applications. We have to do…