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 irrigate his drought-hit crops more cheaply, cleanly and effectively using a pump fuelled by cotton waste.
"Who could think it's possible to make a fuel better than diesel from cotton seeds? I didn't!" laughed Mathoka, crouching 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 said, walking over to a close-by tree and plucking a big green pawpaw. "Irrigation with this biodiesel water pump has helped me get greater yields, specifically throughout drought periods."
Mathoka said his earnings had actually doubled in the 2 years he has been pumping water utilizing biodiesel, which is both more efficient and 20 shillings ($0.20) per litre less expensive than regular diesel.
The biodiesel he is utilizing is not just great news for him - it is also good news for the planet.
Unlike the majority of biofuels, which are stemmed from crops such as maize, sugarcane, soybean, rapeseed and jatropha curcas, it is made from a byproduct of the cotton-making procedure.
That suggests that along with being cleaner and cheaper than regular fuel, it is more sustainable than other biofuels because no additional land is required to produce it.
From Brazil to Indonesia, the rush to cultivate biofuel crops has driven forest communities off their land and pushed farmers to change from crops-for-food to more successful crops-for-fuel - intensifying food shortages.
"Our biodiesel comes from crushing cotton seeds left over as waste after ginning - the procedure of separating the seeds from raw cotton," stated Taher Zavery, managing director of Zaynagro Industries Ltd, the Kitui-based business producing the biodiesel.
"We began producing and using it to power our cotton ginning factory in 2011. With increased production, we now utilize it for our trucks, sell it to the United Nations to run a few of their buses - and likewise to local farmers for watering."
More than 1,200 farmers in Kitui have so far invested in biodiesel pumps for irrigation as part of an effort introduced by Zaynagro in 2015, said 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 rainfall.
The repeating dry spells are damaging crops and pastures and are starving animals - pushing millions of people in the Horn of Africa to the brink of extreme appetite.
The number of Kenyans in need of food aid in March rose by practically 70 percent over a duration of eight months to 1.1 million, largely due to bad rains, according to government figures.
With practically half Kenya's 47 counties declared to have a major lack of rain, humanitarian companies are alerting of increased hunger in the months ahead.
"Only light rainfall is forecast through June ... and this is not anticipated to relieve dry spell in impacted areas of Kenya and Somalia," said the Famine Early Warning Systems Network in its newest report.
"Well below-average crop production, poor livestock body conditions, and increased regional food prices are expected, which will reduce poor homes' access to food."
In Kitui's Kyuso location, the indications are already apparent.
Rivers, water pans and dams are drying up as a result of the prolonged dry spell.
Villagers experience travelling longer distances - often more than 10 km (6 miles) with their donkeys loaded with empty jerry cans looking for water.
Small-scale farmers, the majority of whom depend on rain-fed farming, go over to sell their goats to make ends satisfy if the harvest is bad.
BATTLING DROUGHT WITH BIODIESEL
But not all Kitui's farmers are stressed.
A little however growing number are shedding their concern of reliance on the weather condition - and investing in watering systems powered by Zaynagro's cotton seed biodiesel through a pay-as-you-go scheme released more than 3 years earlier.
Neighbouring farmers band together to invest in the watering system - that includes the biodiesel pump, 12 metres of pipes and 10 litres of biodiesel - at costs beginning from 32,000 shillings, depending upon the size of the pump.
The farmers make an initial payment, then pay interest-free monthly instalments till the total is paid off. They buy the biodiesel to run the pumps from Zaynagro at 80 shillings a litre.
Farmer Alex Babu Kitheka, 39, said the biodiesel pump permitted him to irrigate 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 Ilangilo town, 40 km (25 miles) from Kitui town.
CIRCULAR ECONOMY
Other farmers point to the scheme as a significant benefit in assisting enhance their output.
"The instalment scheme is excellent. Most farmers do not have the money and can not easily 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 helps us a lot. Our yields are great which indicates we can settle the cost of the pump gradually in percentages, and have money left over to pay the school costs."
Zaynagro's initiative is still in its early stages, with couple of farmers having actually repaid the complete expense of the pumps.
But such biofuel schemes are appealing due to the fact that they produce a circular economy by turning waste to biofuel for profit, stated Sanjoy Sanyal, senior associate for Clean Energy Finance at the World Resources Institute.
The simpleness of the design - easy-to-use, robust innovation, ensured supply of biodiesel integrated with a pay-as-you-go plan - might help electrify rural Africa, he stated.
"There is a mosaic of sustainable energy choices on the planet. The crucial concern is evaluating ideas and approaches in a collaborative style," stated Sanyal.
"Other cotton ginning factories in the area ought to try and gain from this experiment. Banks ought to start explore loans to groups of farmers. International donors and financiers 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, females's and LGBT+ rights, human trafficking, property rights and environment modification. Visit http://news.trust.org)
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Cotton Waste Biofuel Powers Farmers to Fight Drought In Kenya
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