Evaluation of selected grass species for soil and water conservation, and carbon sequestration under farmland at Jimma Zone, southwestern Ethiopia

[Geoengineering News]

‎https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/sustainable-food-systems/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2025.1552901/abstract

Authors: Leta Hailu, Gizaw Tesfaye, Wondimagegn Teka, Yalemstehay Debebe, Adugna Bayata

20 November 2025

Abstract 

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of different grass species on soil and water conservation and carbon sequestration at a farmland in Jimma, Ethiopia. The experiment was set out as a randomized complete block design with three replications. The treatments were vetiver grass (Chrysopogon zizanioides L.), Desho grass (Pennisetum pedicellatum), Phalaris grass (Phalaris arundinacea L.) hedgerows, and the control (plots without grass). Soil erosion monitoring pins were installed, and the data were collected every 15 days. Soil samples were collected at 20 cm intervals in the top 100 cm before the grass hedgerows' establishment and after harvesting seasons in December (2016–2019 G.C.). Fresh and oven-dry matter biomass (shoot and root) data were measured. The collected soil samples and grass biomass analysis for carbon fraction were determined following Black and Wakely (1934) and the loss on ignition standard procedure methods, respectively. Pin heights and soil moisture data were analyzed using R software. Results show that, significantly (P<0.05), the highest mean value of pin height was observed in a control plot as compared to plots with grass species. Conversely, soil moisture and crop yield showed no significant variation between treatments. However, the highest mean value of soil moisture content was exhibited under the plot with the vetiver grass hedgerow. Vetiver grass possesses the highest potential for carbon content in the shoot (22.06 Mg C ha-1yr-1), root (8.98 Mg C ha-1yr-1), and soil (15.9 Mg C ha-1yr-1). Furthermore, the Vetiver grass sequesters (172.27 Mg C ha-1yr-1) more carbon as compared to Desho grass (112.85 Mg C ha-1yr-1), Phalaris grass (78.35 Mg C ha-1yr-1), and plots without grass species (44.41 Mg C ha-1yr-1). This study suggests vetiver grass for soil and water conservation and carbon sequestration purposes to contribute to the mitigation of climate change. Further study of the potential of grass species on carbon sequestration under controlled experimental plots is encouraged since collecting fibrous root biomass is difficult on farmlands.

Source: Frontiers 

[Tom Goreau]

Vetiver grass is the best tropical grass for erosion control, as well as for soil carbon sequestration, biochar production, sewage treatment, and many valuable economic products!

 

Those wanting more information should go to the International Vetiver Network web site:

 

https://www.vetiver.org/

 

You can download free around half a dozen chapters showing some of Vetiver’s applications to regenerating soils, soil productivity, carbon sequestration, and global climate etc. at:

 

Geotherapy: Innovative Methods of Soil Fertility Restoration, Carbon Sequestration, and Reversing CO2 Increase

https://www.routledge.com/Geotherapy-Innovative-Methods-of-Soil-Fertility-Restoration-Carbon-Sequestration-and-Reversing-CO2-Increase/Goreau-Larson-Campe/p/book/9781466595392

 

VETIVER IS THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT PLANT FOR REGENERATING TROPICAL SOIL CARBON AND ECONOMIC PRODUCTIVITY!

 

 

Thomas J. F. Goreau, PhD
President, Global Coral Reef Alliance

Chief Scientist, Biorock Technology Inc., Blue Regeneration SL

Technical Advisor, Blue Guardians Programme, SIDS DOCK

37 Pleasant Street, Cambridge, MA 02139

gor...@globalcoral.org
www.globalcoral.org
Phone: (1) 857-523-0807 (leave message)

 

Books:

Geotherapy: Innovative Methods of Soil Fertility Restoration, Carbon Sequestration, and Reversing CO2 Increase

https://www.routledge.com/Geotherapy-Innovative-Methods-of-Soil-Fertility-Restoration-Carbon-Sequestration-and-Reversing-CO2-Increase/Goreau-Larson-Campe/p/book/9781466595392

 

Innovative Methods of Marine Ecosystem Restoration

https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.1201/b14314/innovative-methods-marine-ecosystem-restoration-robert-kent-trench-thomas-goreau

 

On the Nature of Things: The Scientific Photography of Fritz Goro

 

Geotherapy: Regenerating ecosystem services to reverse climate change

 

No one can change the past, everybody can change the future

 

It’s much later than we think, especially if we don’t think

 

Those with their heads in the sand will see the light when global warming and sea level rise wash the beach away

 

“When you run to the rocks, the rocks will be melting, when you run to the sea, the sea will be boiling”, Peter Tosh, Jamaica’s greatest song writer

 

“The Earth is not dying, she is being killed” U. Utah Phillips

 

“It is the responsibility of intellectuals to speak the truth and expose lies” Noam Chomsky

 

 

 

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[Geoengineering News]

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Philip Kithil 

FYI new report on artificial upwelling: 

Biogeochemical Modeling of Ocean Carbon Uptake in Artificial Upwelling: An Analytical Solution

Yifeng Wang1 and Philip Kithil2

1Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA; yw...@sandia.gov 

2Sea Upwelling Company, Inc., Santa Fe, New Mexico; ph...@sea-up.life 

Abstract: A 1-D biogeochemical model is formulated for CO2 uptake in an artificial upwelling (AU) system with an array of pump pipes. The model explicitly accounts for the gas exchange at the ocean-atmosphere interface, the primary production in the euphotic layer, and the biomass settling and degradation in the water column. The model is solved analytically to clarify the key controlling factors for carbon uptake. The model analysis shows that CO2 uptake increases quadratically with surface wind speed and then approaches a plateau limited by nutrient availability. A large fraction of biomass produced in the euphotic layer drops out of the water column through settling and thus serves as an important vehicle for carbon sequestration in an AU system.  Carbon uptake is found to depend on the water pumping rate, and an optimal pumping rate is shown to exist for maximum carbon uptake. Carbon uptake rate is also found to increase monotonically with the nutrient concentration, thus making the nutrient concentration a most important parameter for controlling carbon uptake in an AU system.  The model analysis further reveals that there exists a critical minimum value for parameter vu or nb, below which no sustainable primary production in the euphotic layer is possible. A necessary condition for maintaining a sustainable primary production is delineated.

If you would like a pdf of the full report please email ph...@sea-up.life

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[Brian Cady]

Most vetiver and most comfrey are, I believe,  sterile triploid clones; monocultures. Both are easier to work with than their diploid, fertile, seed-setting wild relatives. While the sterile triploids are susceptible to a disease outbreak, since they are not evolving, they've proven quite useful.

Brian

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[Tom Goreau]

Thanks so much, Brian. I had not mentioned this crucially important point!

 

Not only does Vetiver produce exceptional biomass and soil carbon storage, but unlike other very fast growing plants, it never becomes an invasive weed!

 

The varieties used are sterile, so they can’t spread uncontrollably like all the other fast growing grasses, which are destroying tropical landscapes, for example in the Panama Canal and across South East Asia.

 

Vetiver can only be grown by propagating and planting the roots, the roots grow straight down, 5 meters or more, binding the soil and completely stopping erosion on slopes by creating extremely productive terraces when row-planted along contours.

 

Since it does not have horizontal roots and runners, it does not spread underground or aboveground, it forms dense clumps that have to be pulled apart for new planting.

 

Vetiver is so useful that I once collected a whole field of Vetiver seed to try to plant. Not a single one germinated! I learned that it is truly a very beneficial plant that NEVER becomes an invasive weed,

[Brian Cady]

Vetiver's vertical geotrophic rooting habit may result from a simple mutation, which might be found in other useful crops. Vetiver's geotrophic roots don't compete much with adjacent crops, and stabilize steep soils.

Brian

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