Deleting the wiki page 'Cotton Waste Biofuel Powers Farmers to Fight Drought In Kenya' cannot be undone. Continue?
By Nita Bhalla
KITUI, Kenya, June 6 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Kenyan farmer Abel Mutie Mathoka believed it should be a joke when he was informed he might irrigate his drought-hit crops more cheaply, cleanly and effectively using a pump sustained by cotton waste.
“Who could think it’s possible to make a fuel much better than diesel from cotton seeds? I didn’t!” laughed Mathoka, crouching down to examine 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 neighboring tree and plucking a big green pawpaw. “Irrigation with this biodiesel water pump has assisted me get higher yields, particularly throughout dry spell periods.”
Mathoka said his earnings had actually doubled in the 2 years he has been pumping water using biodiesel, which is both more efficient and 20 shillings ($0.20) per litre more affordable than regular diesel.
The biodiesel he is using is not just excellent news for him - it is also excellent news for the world.
Unlike many biofuels, which are originated from crops such as maize, sugarcane, soybean, rapeseed and jatropha curcas, it is made from a byproduct of the cotton-making process.
That implies that along with being cleaner and cheaper than regular fuel, it is more sustainable than other biofuels because no extra land is required to produce it.
From Brazil to Indonesia, the rush to cultivate biofuel crops has driven forest neighborhoods off their land and pressed farmers to change from crops-for-food to more rewarding crops-for-fuel - worsening food lacks.
“Our biodiesel comes from squashing 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 company producing the biodiesel.
“We started 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 also to regional farmers for irrigation.”
More than 1,200 farmers in Kitui have so far purchased biodiesel pumps for irrigation as part of an initiative launched by Zaynagro in 2015, stated Zavery.
DRY RIVER BEDS
Climate change is taking a toll across east Africa and progressively irregular weather condition is ending up being commonplace in nations such as Kenya, Somalia, Uganda and Ethiopia, resulting in lower rains.
The repeating dry spells are damaging crops and pastures and are starving animals - pressing millions of people in the Horn of Africa to the brink of extreme cravings.
The variety of Kenyans in requirement of in March surged by almost 70 percent over a period of 8 months to 1.1 million, mainly due to poor rains, according to government figures.
With almost half Kenya’s 47 counties declared to have a major shortage of rain, humanitarian companies are alerting of increased appetite in the months ahead.
“Only light rains is anticipated through June … and this is not anticipated to minimize drought in impacted areas of Kenya and Somalia,” said the Famine Early Warning Systems Network in its most current report.
“Well below-average crop production, bad livestock body conditions, and increased local food costs are prepared for, which will decrease bad families’ access to food.”
In Kitui’s Kyuso location, the signs are currently apparent.
Rivers, water pans and dams are drying up as a result of the extended drought.
Villagers suffer trekking longer ranges - in some cases more than 10 km (6 miles) with their donkeys laden with empty jerry cans looking for water.
Small-scale farmers, many of whom are dependent on rain-fed farming, talk about strategies to sell their goats to make ends fulfill if the harvest is bad.
BATTLING DROUGHT WITH BIODIESEL
But not all Kitui’s farmers are stressed.
A small however growing number are shedding their problem of reliance on the weather condition - and investing in irrigation systems powered by Zaynagro’s cotton seed biodiesel through a pay-as-you-go scheme introduced more than 3 years ago.
Neighbouring farmers band together to invest in the irrigation system - which consists of the biodiesel pump, 12 metres of pipelines 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 regular 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 permitted him to water a larger portion of his one-acre plot, where he grows a range of veggies consisting of maize, tomatoes, spinach and sweet potatoes.
“With a diesel pump, maize yields were lower and I would get 15,000 shillings in three months. With the biodiesel pump, I can make 45,000 shillings,” stated Alex Babu Kitheka, standing near his plot in Ilangilo village, 40 km (25 miles) from Kitui town.
CIRCULAR ECONOMY
Other farmers indicate the scheme as a major benefit in helping improve their output.
“The instalment scheme is good. Most farmers do not have the cash and can not quickly get a loan to purchase a pump like this,” stated Maurice Kitheka Munyoki, 41, as he stood next to his blue biodiesel pump.
“Having a plan like this assists us a lot. Our yields are great which means we can settle the expense of the pump gradually in percentages, and have money left over to pay the school fees.”
Zaynagro’s initiative is still in its early stages, with couple of farmers having actually paid back the full expense of the pumps.
But such biofuel schemes are appealing because they create a circular economy by turning waste to biofuel for earnings, stated Sanjoy Sanyal, senior associate for Clean Energy Finance at the World Resources Institute.
The simpleness of the design - user friendly, robust innovation, ensured supply of biodiesel integrated with a pay-as-you-go plan - could assist electrify rural Africa, he said.
“There is a mosaic of sustainable energy choices on the planet. The key concern is checking ideas and techniques in a collaborative fashion,” said Sanyal.
“Other cotton ginning factories in the region must attempt and gain from this experiment. Financial organizations should begin experimenting with loans to groups of farmers. International donors and financiers require 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, home rights and climate modification. Visit http://news.trust.org)
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