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1 Cotton Waste Biofuel Powers Farmers to Combat Drought In Kenya

By Nita Bhalla

KITUI, Kenya, June 6 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Kenyan farmer Abel Mutie Mathoka thought it must be a joke when he was told he could water his drought-hit crops more inexpensively, cleanly and effectively utilizing a pump fuelled by cotton waste.

"Who could think it's possible to make a fuel much better than diesel from cotton seeds? I didn't!" chuckled Mathoka, bending down to check the watermelons on his 10-acre (four-hectare) shared plot in Ituri village in Kenya's southeast Kitui county.

"But it works," he stated, strolling over to a neighboring tree and plucking a big green pawpaw. "Irrigation with this biodiesel water pump has actually helped me get greater yields, particularly during dry spell periods."

Mathoka stated his incomes had actually doubled in the two years he has actually been pumping water utilizing biodiesel, which is both more efficient and 20 shillings ($0.20) per litre less expensive than routine diesel.

The biodiesel he is utilizing is not just great news for him - it is likewise great news for the planet.

Unlike the majority of biofuels, which are derived from crops such as maize, sugarcane, soybean, rapeseed and jatropha curcas, it is made from a by-product of the cotton-making process.

That indicates that as well as being cleaner and cheaper than routine fuel, it is more sustainable than other biofuels since no extra land is required to produce it.

From Brazil to Indonesia, the rush to cultivate biofuel crops has actually driven forest communities off their land and pressed farmers to switch from crops-for-food to more rewarding crops-for-fuel - worsening food lacks.

"Our biodiesel comes from crushing cotton seeds left over as waste after ginning - the process of separating the seeds from raw cotton," said Taher Zavery, handling director of Zaynagro Industries Ltd, the Kitui-based business producing the biodiesel.

"We started producing and utilizing it to power our cotton ginning factory in 2011. With increased production, we now use it for our trucks, offer it to the United Nations to run some of their buses - and likewise to regional farmers for irrigation."

More than 1,200 farmers in Kitui have actually so far bought biodiesel pumps for watering as part of an effort introduced by Zaynagro in 2015, stated Zavery.

DRY RIVER BEDS

Climate modification is taking a toll throughout east Africa and increasingly irregular weather condition is ending up being commonplace in countries such as Kenya, Somalia, Uganda and Ethiopia, resulting in lower rains.

The recurring dry spells are ruining crops and pastures and are starving animals - pushing countless individuals in the Horn of Africa to the brink of severe cravings.

The variety of Kenyans in need of food help in March surged by practically 70 percent over a period of 8 months to 1.1 million, mainly due to poor rains, according to federal government figures.

With almost half Kenya's 47 counties declared to have a severe scarcity of rain, humanitarian companies are alerting of increased hunger in the months ahead.

"Only light rainfall is anticipated through June ... and this is not expected to alleviate dry spell in impacted locations of Kenya and Somalia," said the Famine Early Warning Systems Network in its most current report.

"Well below-average crop production, poor livestock body conditions, and increased local food costs are prepared for, which will lower bad households' access to food."

In Kitui's Kyuso area, the signs are already obvious.

Rivers, water pans and dams are drying up as an outcome of the prolonged drought.

Villagers suffer travelling longer distances - sometimes more than 10 km (6 miles) with their donkeys laden with empty jerry cans searching for water.

Small-scale farmers, the majority of whom are reliant on rain-fed agriculture, discuss strategies to sell their goats to make ends satisfy if the harvest is bad.

BATTLING DROUGHT WITH BIODIESEL

But not all Kitui's farmers are fretted.

A small however growing number are shedding their problem of reliance on the weather condition - and purchasing irrigation systems powered by Zaynagro's cotton seed biodiesel through a pay-as-you-go plan released more than 3 years ago.

Neighbouring farmers band together to buy the watering system - that includes the biodiesel pump, 12 metres of pipelines and 10 litres of biodiesel - at costs beginning with 32,000 shillings, depending upon the size of the pump.

The farmers make a preliminary payment, then pay interest-free monthly instalments until the overall is paid off. They purchase the biodiesel to run the pumps from Zaynagro at 80 shillings a litre.

Farmer Alex Babu Kitheka, 39, stated the biodiesel pump enabled him to water a bigger part of his one-acre plot, where he grows a range of vegetables including maize, tomatoes, spinach and sweet potatoes.

"With a diesel pump, maize yields were lower and I would get 15,000 shillings in 3 months. With the biodiesel pump, I can earn 45,000 shillings," said Alex Babu Kitheka, standing near his plot in town, 40 km (25 miles) from Kitui town.

CIRCULAR ECONOMY

Other farmers point to the scheme as a major advantage in helping enhance their output.

"The instalment plan is good. Most farmers don't have the money and can not quickly get a loan to purchase a pump like this," said Maurice Kitheka Munyoki, 41, as he stood next to his blue biodiesel pump.

"Having a scheme like this assists us a lot. Our yields are good which implies we can pay off the expense of the pump gradually in percentages, and have cash left over to pay the school charges."

Zaynagro's effort is still in its early phases, with couple of farmers having repaid the full cost of the pumps.

But such biofuel plans are promising because they develop a circular economy by turning waste to biofuel for earnings, said Sanjoy Sanyal, senior associate for Clean Energy Finance at the World Resources Institute.

The simpleness of the model - easy-to-use, robust technology, ensured supply of biodiesel integrated with a pay-as-you-go plan - might help amaze rural Africa, he said.

"There is a mosaic of sustainable energy alternatives in the world. The key concern is testing ideas and techniques in a collective fashion," stated Sanyal.

"Other cotton ginning factories in the area should attempt and gain from this experiment. Financial institutions should begin exploring with loans to groups of farmers. International donors and investors need to support experimentation."

($1 = 101.3000 Kenyan shillings) (Reporting by Nita Bhalla @nitabhalla, Editing by Claire Cozens. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, ladies's and LGBT+ rights, human trafficking, home rights and environment change. Visit http://news.trust.org)