Vetiver System in Kenya - lessons learned worldwide

Post date: May 19, 2011 7:43:45 AM

Worldwide, TVNI has gathered lessons learned, including misconceptions about Vetiver System, failures in applications. TVNI analysed this, gathering lessons in three groups, as conditions for success, summarised in KLEI (dutch for clay):

Knowledge: i) understanding land degradation, hydrology, how to conserve water, soil moisture and soils;

ii) know-how on measures to retard water flow on farm land, steep slopes, drains, water bodies;

adjusting these measures to local conditions, and locally available materials;

iii) understanding plant physiology and how this can improve water quality, to treat waste water;

iv) know-how on artificial wetland system design;

v) knowing effective methods of promoting and upscaling innovations.

Leadership: i) mobilising different stakeholders for a common cause;

ii) promoting innovation, in practice and policies: leading decision makers and contractors.

Economic Incentives: Demonstrating, visualising, quantifying the benefits, seeking win-win situations.

Now these lessons apply to Kenya's experience with Vetiver System:

Knowledge

1. Most often, there is the misunderstanding of how Vetiver System works, on-farm: the misunderstanding includes not just farmers (often are not correctly advised on how the hedge works, or how to use Vetiver for fodder) but also crops officers, KARI experts on soil conservation, NEMA project officers concerned about catchment protection. Main misconceptions:

a. "Vetiver is to solve the problem of 'fanya juu', it is just another grass that should be used to plant on top of the contour banks" (to address their problem of being instable, requiring more maintenance, and having an inherent risk of breaking). Our advise: do not waste your Vetiver planting material on a method like 'fanya juu' that is itself a risky method, and also more costly, using more space, and being less effective in conserving soil moisture (apart from the problems it can cause once the runoff is diverted off farm, into drainage 'systems' that are not designed for this accumulated water).

PLEASE DOWNLOAD ATTACHED PAPER (just 2 pages) TO UNDERSTAND HOW IT WORKS.

b. "Vetiver is a useless fodder" (said farmers to KARI soil scientist).

What we learned: the farmers - planting it on 'fanya juu' - compared Vetiver to Napier grass and also managed it in the same way. They were not told that Vetiver is only good fodder when young (green) - it cannot make hay (indigestible).

Vetiver is planted in the first place as the most effective method to reduce water runoff and soil loss, the green fodder is a useful by-product.

c. "Bio-engineering with Vetiver System is simple": what we learned is that when planting on riverbanks several people first got it wrong (spacing too wide, survival rate too low, planting material probably not adequate), before they got it right. This is where PLUS-Kenya must play a role, following up, making sure that the technology is not only 'understood' but also applied correctly.

Leadership

It requires inspired leaders to consider and adopt Vetiver System. This happens in many countries, and to some extent in Kenya, for example now in Nairobi Water & Sewerage Company, as a first large-scale adopter of Vetiver System to treat the sewage in Dandora and elsewhere (at least, that is currently the plan, we read May 2011).

Yet, in other sectors it is more difficult:

a. KERRA (through MoA) did allow some minimal training on Vetiver System for SWC on roads, and acknowledged that the small pilot demonstration is successfull; however, since then nothing is heard about its adoption.

It is a sign of progress that nearly 20% of the booklet on the training (SWC for roads) presents Vetiver System, but with such minimal training and without any reference to TVNI or more experienced practitioners in Kenya, the lack of knowledge (networking) is rather a risk.

b. There are many more examples, where Vetiver System was presented, discussed, welcomed, applauded, raised as a technology to be adopted, after which nothing happened. Slide presentations alone will not do the job: leadership is required.

Economic Incentives

The (early) adopters do see the economic incentives. This explains the progress (however slowly) that Vetiver System makes in Kenya. As one indicator, those with nurseries increasingly make money selling the planting material! Currently it is sold for about 6 Ksh/slip... There is a shortage, notwithstanding the fact that since 2007 many more Vetiver nurseries have established in Kenya.