Conservation farming on steep lands - USAid

Elephant grass
for soil erosion control
a~ad livestock feed
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Grant W. Thomas
lJsc of elephant grass (Perrrrcsetunt plclpureutn) for soil erosion control
apparently has been rather limited. Sac:~deve and associates (5) used
elephant grass and a relaid species to control ergsion in waterways in Nepal
with considerable success. Baker (2) used elephant grass in st! ips as a windbreak
in fields uf tomatoes and reported good results. He warned of the
necessity to control its growth to avoid reducing yields of adjacent crops.
Bhutia (3) tcported using elephant grass in crop systerns in India similar
to those repor;ed herein. In addition to thebe reports. elephant grass has
been tried in various countries for erosion control without reports having
been published or published in English (1, 4, 6, 7). The work reported
herein describes the use cf elephant grass as livc barriers and grass strips
for erosion control and livestock feed in the Dominican Republic.
The conservation work reported herein was done under the Natural Resources
Managemegt Project by the government of the Dominican Republic
and the U..S. Agency for International Development. This work wils set
up on both a nationa: and a lccal pilot scale.
The pilo: project was in the Ocoa River Valley waterslred, located about
60 miles west of Santo Domingo. The valley rises from sea level to an altitude
of 2,000 meters. hlost of the project work was done at altitudes of
400 meters or more, where many farms are or, steeply sloping land. Erosiorl
is a serious problem because of the lack of soil cover and high rainfall
intensities, coupled with a distinc! wet-dry seasonal pattern.
.4verage rainfall and calculated evapotranspiration poient~al are shown
in figure 1 for San Jos:: de Ocoa. Notice the extremely dry period in the
winter and early spring and the exceptionally wet month of May. Notice
also the fact that the!-2 is insufficient water in most months of the year.
In practical terms, this meacs that the chances of crop failure are always
fairjy great.