![\"\"](\"http:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/IMG_9308-scaled.jpg\")
\u00a0\u00a0 <\/a>![\"\"](\"http:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/IMG_9311-scaled.jpg\")
<\/a> \u00a0 <\/a>![\"\"](\"http:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/IMG_9299-scaled.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n On Thursday 1st<\/sup> December sixteen (16) students and three (3) teachers from St. Anthony\u2019s School were given a tour of the Vetiver Grass Nursery located at Gilbert\u2019s Agricultural Rural Development Centre (GARDC).\u00a0 They were met and given a tour by Craig Thomas, (IICA \u2013 National Specialist), Victor Harris, (Technical Officer for the Agricultural Extension Division) and Miss. June Jackson (Director \u2013 GARDC).<\/p>\n After the necessary introductions were made by Thomas, Miss Jackson explained:<\/p>\n During her short presentation, Jackson showed some of the value-added products derived from the grass which included a variety of soaps and sachets of the grassroots. \u00a0Additionally, she shared the benefits of being in association with the GARDC and encouraged the youth to join the organization.<\/p>\n Thomas, encouraged the students to be attentive, especially to the information shared by Jackson because there were questions, they could answer and be rewarded with some of the Vetiver tokens Jackson showed earlier.\u00a0 This spurred excitement amongst the teenagers and teachers alike.<\/p>\n Shortly thereafter, the tour of the nursery was conducted by both Thomas and Harris.\u00a0 While Harris was extracting a Vetiver plant to show the visiting class its roots system. \u201cVetiver is a very versatile plant that has a high pest tolerance and its foliage can be weaved into items such as mats and baskets,\u201d Thomas said.<\/p>\n Mr. Harris shared additional information pertaining to the drip irrigation system that is used to irrigate the nursery and why it was used for the Vetiver grass and its roots system.\u00a0 \u201cThe root is fibrous and can grow up to ten feet long, unlike the lemon grass which it\u2019s related to, the Vetiver leaves are unscented and were sturdier.\u00a0 However, the Vetiver roots have a mild mint scent\u201d Harris explained which is usually used for essential oil extraction among other by-products.\u00a0 In an effort to make the field trip more practical students were given the opportunity to use techniques while harvesting vetiver grass in addition to experiencing the laborious task it required.<\/p>\n The trip to the Cooks Landfill was the next stop of the field trip which surprisingly was the first time for all the students as well as some teachers. Hanson\u2019s Bay which borders the landfill is considered the largest mangrove swamp in Antigua is benefiting from the intervention that when the plant is fully established it will mitigate the loss of soil caused by water or wind erosion.\u00a0 Additionally, another benefit of the vetiver grass is the roots will serve as a purifier extracting nitrogen and phosphorous from eutrophic water.<\/p>\n The vetiver grass project is being coordinated and implemented by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) under the Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) project supported by Caribbean Biodiversity Fund (CBF).\u00a0This Project is regional externally funded by Caribbean Biodiversity Fund EbA Project whereby the GARD Centre is the main beneficiary in Antigua and Barbuda.\u00a0 The project is also replicated in three other islands in the region namely St. Lucia, Dominica and Tobago.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-iica","category-news-notices"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4828"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4828\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4893,"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4828\/revisions\/4893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n <\/a>\u00a0 <\/a>\u00a0 <\/a><\/p>\n\u00a0\u00a0 <\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0 <\/a>\u00a0 <\/a><\/p>\n\n
<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/a><\/p>\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/a> <\/a>\u00a0 <\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0 <\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\u00a0\u00a0 <\/a><\/a> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/a><\/p>\n\u00a0\u00a0 <\/a><\/a> \u00a0 <\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/a><\/p>\n
![\u00a0 <\/a>](\"http:\/\/agriculture.gov.ag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/IMG_9372-scaled.jpg\"){kind=link}