The Vetiver System, Community Development, and Poverty

There have been a number of cases where the Vetiver System has been singled out as being eminently useful as a technology that enhances community development projects. (see Mexico; Indonesia; Dabie Mountains in China; and Poverty Reduction and Resource Protection in a Guangxi Province Minority Area, China


These projects have a number of things in common. They are all impacting on the poorest of the poor, they are in areas where soils have deteriorated because of erosion and over cultivation, and they are all using the Vetiver System as a key technical component that enables the improvement of land and soil fertility, and increases household incomes through more reliable production benefits and in some cases the manufacture of handicrafts. The recent report from China indicates that there is a growing demand to upscale these small community projects to neighboring areas and counties. All three of these projects were initiated by NGOs and are good examples of community partnerships. TVNI is vigorously promoting these sorts of partnerships that involve the Vetiver System and poor communities.