GVF Farmer Guide
How to take part in the Global Vetiver Farmer program and record your harvest with SVH-1.
Farmers and gardeners in many countries grow vetiver as hedges or as single plants. Once a year, at harvest, each records how the crop grows close to the vetiver and farther away. Together these records show where vetiver helps crops most, and why. Taking part is free and needs no special equipment.
Four steps
1
Choose a farm model
Read the one-page summary, then the fact sheet for the model that suits your farm.
Farm Models Summary
2
Register your site
Takes 2 minutes. Your GVF Site ID arrives by email. Write it down.
Register
3
Plant and care
Follow your model guide. Hedges and plants you already have also count.
Model guides
4
Record at harvest
Fill in one SVH-1 for each hedge or plant. One visit is enough.
Open SVH-1
Three ways to fill in SVH-1
Recommended
KoboCollect app
Free, for Android phones. Records your GPS location in one tap, takes photos inside the form, works without a signal, and saves half-finished forms as drafts.
Any phone or computer
Web form
Nothing to install. Choose your language from the menu at the top of the form. Works offline once opened.
In the field
Paper form
Print SVH-1 and fill it in by hand. Then type it into the web form or app, or give it to your GVF coordinator.
Forms are in English and 14 other languages. Extra photos can be sent at any time with the Photo Upload form.
How to observe
Stand at the hedge at harvest. Observe the crop at six points on each side, measured along the ground straight out from the hedge edge (for a single plant, from its center): U points uphill, D points downhill.
U0 and D0 are at the edge of the hedge. If the next hedge or plant is closer than 40 m, stop at the mid-point (M) between them: it is the last point for both, and the points beyond it are skipped. Write the distance to M in B02. On flat land, or for a single plant, use two opposite directions.
1
Mark the points. Use a tape, or a rope knotted at 2, 5, 10, 15 and 20 m, and a stick at each point.
2
Use the same sample at every point, for example 3 plants, 1 m of row, or 1 m². Note which you used.
3
Record at each point: crop vigor (1–5), harvest, pest damage, root galling, Striga, termites, and how easily the soil crumbles.
4
Do both sides, uphill (U) and downhill (D), then take the photos the form asks for, if you can.
Good to know
•On your first SVH-1 for a site, answer Yes to “first SVH-1 for this site?” so the site details are recorded once.
•Hedge age (A12) is the most important item on the form.
•In dry years, a poorer crop right beside the hedge can be normal. It is often made up by better yields farther away.
•Leave blank anything that does not apply. Write what you see, not what you expect.
•Your email and Site ID go on the last page. The Site ID can be typed with or without dashes.