Vetiver System Developments in Ethiopia

Ethiopia is the leader in applying the Vetiver System in Ethiopia. Habtemariam Abate, head of Sustainable Land Use Forum and Belay Simane of the Institute for Environment of Ethiopia have written an interesting paper about the expanding use of the Vetiver System in Ethiopia.

"Currently the grass has become widely known throughout the country with numerous successful applications for road cut-slope stability enhancement, erosion/flood control of embankments, dykes, riverbanks, sand dune fixation as well as waste and leachate control etc. Even though, the application of Vetiver System for erosion control and slope stabilization have been implemented for the last 30 years in Ethiopia, there is a lot of opportunity to refine existing applications in Ethiopia through integrated research and development efforts by involving all stakeholders at all levels."

At the Jimma Coffee Research Institute experiments by Afework Hailu (2009) showed that at three years when the vetiver hedge is mature and under a rainfall of 1348 mm/per annum vetiver hedgerows reduced rainfall runoff from 139 mm on untreated bare land to 37mm on bare land with vetiver, and 17 mm with vetiver and coffee.  These results are confirmed on some properly treated farms in Mettu where farmers reported negligible rainfall runoff as a result of vetiver system conservation approaches.

The Ethiopian Vetiver Network is under the auspices of SLUFF - it is doing a great job in the expanding role of the Vetiver System in Ethiopia.