Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: Crops Grow in Former Garbage Dump

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CARACAS, Aug 24 2009 (IPS) - Community groups and Venezuela's Ministry of Environment planted 4,000 vetiver grass shoots (Vetiveria zizanioides) on the slopes of the Ojo de Agua terraces, a former sanitary landfill west of the capital. The planting “will hold in place the terrace slopes and will promote socio-productive activity for the poor residents of the area, because they will be able to use the stalks as a raw material to produce artisanry,” Efraín León, the ministry's director of community participation, told Tierramérica.

Workshops on the material will take place in the communities at the end of the year, when the plants can be harvested.

Several rural and urban communities in the north of the country plant vetiver, whose roots help stabilize soil, conserve slopes, dams and riverbanks, to use its treated leaves to make baskets, decorations and other crafts.