Environmental policy and administrative management

Of all environmental problems affecting Zimbabwe, soil erosion is one of the most serious problems as it results in the loss of productivity capacity in soils and loss of water resources. In addition, widespread clearing of land for cultivation and increased livestock pressure in grazing land has led to serious problems of soil erosion in Chiweshe. Not much effort and work has been done in Zimbabwe to promote soil conservation and it is imperative that this issue be addressed. Vertiva has proved to be one of the best alternatives to control the spread of erosion and to rehabilitate the gegraded land. Vertiva grass is perennial and has little maintanance costs . The Vertiver grass Project seeks to address the issues of soil erosion in the communal land by planting vetiver grass. The objectives of the project are: 1) To combat soil erosion 2) To establish vetiver grass nurseries for transfer to areas needing grass erosion control. 3) To introduce vetiver grass as an option to contour ridges in soil erosion control 4) To raise peoples awareness in methods of controlling soil erosion. 5) To improve opportunities for in-situ water conservationin arable and grazing lands with vetiver grass. the activities to be carried out : 6) To set up nurseries for vetiver grss in the area. 7) To replant seedlings in the communal farms. 8) To organise pilot programmes for repegging of arable lands by agritex to facilitate planting of vetiver on the true contour. 9) To train of farmers to adopt vetiver for erosion control. the project participants and or the beneficiaries are the communal farmers from the 6 VIDCOs.The Natural resources board and the local Agritex encourage cooperation and information exchange among the beneficiary groups. ANTICIPATED RESULTS 1) Established vetiver nurseries 2) Adoption of vetiver as erosion control tool in chiweshe 3) Better conserved arable land grazing lands 4) Increased yields from conserved fields. The overall expected result is an increase in productivity of the land.

Zimbabwe