s:2449:"%T Natural Vegetative Strips (NVS) 
%A Budidarsono S 
%A Arifatmi B 
%A Tomich T P 
%A de Foresta H 
%X Natural vegetative strips (NVS) are narrow live barriers comprising naturally occurringgrasses and herbs. Contour lines are laid out with an A-frame or through the ‘cow'sback method’ (a cow is used to walk across the slope: it tends to follow the contour andthis is confirmed when its back is seen to be level). The contours are then pegged toserve as an initial guide to ploughing. The 0.3-0.5 m wide strips are left unploughed toallow vegetation to establish. Runoff flowing down the slope during intense rain isslowed, and infiltrates when it reaches the vegetative strips. Eroded soil collects on andabove the strips and natural terraces form over time. This levelling is assisted byploughing along the contour between the NVS - through ‘tillage erosion’ - which alsomoves soil downslope. The vegetation on the established NVS needs to be cut back to aheight of 5-10 cm: once before planting a crop, and once or twice during the croppingperiod. The cut material can be incorporated during land preparation, applied to thecropping area as mulch, or used as fodder. This depends on whether the farmer haslivestock or not, on personal preference, and on the time of cutting. If the grass isapplied as mulch or incorporated, the technology can be considered to be an agronomic,as well as a vegetative, measure. NVS constitutes a low-cost technique because noplanting material is required and only minimal labour is necessary for establishmentand maintenance. Some farmers had already practiced the technology for several yearsbefore the intervention of the ICRAF (The World Agroforestry Centre) in 1993. ICRAFcame to realise that farmers here preferred NVS to the recommended ‘contour barrierhedgerows’ of multipurpose trees- which land users viewed as being too labourintensive. When farmers became organised into ‘Landcare’ groups, NVS began to gainwide acceptance. Land users appreciate the technique because it effectively controlssoil erosion and prevents loss (through surface runoff) of fertilizers applied to the crop.As an option, some farmers plant fruit and timber trees, bananas or pineapples on orabove the NVS. This may be during establishment of the contour lines, or later. Thetrees and other cash perennials provide an additional source of income, at the cost ofsome shading of the adjacent annual crops. 
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