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 sustained by cotton waste.

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

“But it works,” he said, walking over to a nearby tree and plucking a big green pawpaw. “Irrigation with this biodiesel water pump has helped me get greater yields, particularly during dry spell periods.”

Mathoka stated his profits 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 using is not simply excellent news for him - it is likewise excellent news for the planet.

Unlike a lot 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 along with being cleaner and less expensive than routine 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 actually driven forest neighborhoods off their land and pushed farmers to switch from crops-for-food to more successful crops-for-fuel - intensifying food lacks.

“Our biodiesel originates from crushing cotton seeds left over as waste after ginning - the process 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 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 a few of their buses - and also to regional farmers for watering.”

More than 1,200 farmers in Kitui have actually up until now invested in biodiesel pumps for irrigation as part of an initiative introduced by Zaynagro in 2015, said Zavery.

DRY RIVER BEDS

Climate change is taking a toll across east Africa and significantly unpredictable weather condition is becoming commonplace in countries such as Kenya, Somalia, Uganda and Ethiopia, resulting in lower rainfall.

The repeating dry spells are ruining crops and pastures and are starving animals - pushing millions of people in the Horn of Africa to the verge of severe appetite.

The number of Kenyans in need of food aid in March rose by practically 70 percent over a period of eight months to 1.1 million, largely due to bad rains, according to federal government figures.

With practically half Kenya’s 47 counties declared to have a serious lack of rain, humanitarian firms are cautioning of increased hunger in the months ahead.

“Only light rainfall is anticipated through June … and this is not expected to alleviate drought in affected areas of Kenya and Somalia,” stated the Famine Early Warning Systems Network in its newest report.

“Well below-average crop production, bad livestock body conditions, and increased regional food prices are anticipated, which will reduce poor families’ access to food.”

In Kitui’s Kyuso area, the indications are already apparent.

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

Villagers complain of travelling longer ranges - in some cases more than 10 km (6 miles) with their donkeys packed with empty jerry cans looking for water.

Small-scale farmers, the majority of whom are dependent on rain-fed agriculture, talk about strategies to offer their goats to make ends fulfill if the harvest is poor.

BATTLING DROUGHT WITH BIODIESEL

But not all Kitui’s farmers are fretted.

A little however growing number are shedding their concern of reliance on the weather condition - and buying watering systems powered by Zaynagro’s cotton seed biodiesel through a pay-as-you-go scheme launched more than three years back.

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

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

Farmer Alex Babu Kitheka, 39, said the biodiesel pump enabled him to water a bigger portion of his one-acre plot, where he grows a variety of veggies including 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 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 indicate the plan as a significant 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 buy a pump like this,” said Maurice Kitheka Munyoki, 41, as he stood beside his blue biodiesel pump.

“Having a scheme like this assists us a lot. Our yields are good which means we can pay off the cost of the pump slowly in percentages, and have money left over to pay the school charges.”

Zaynagro’s effort is still in its early stages, with couple of farmers having paid back the full expense of the pumps.

But such biofuel plans are promising since they create a circular economy by turning waste to biofuel for profit, said Sanjoy Sanyal, senior partner for Clean Energy Finance at the World Resources Institute.

The simplicity of the model - easy-to-use, robust innovation, assured supply of biodiesel integrated with a pay-as-you-go scheme - might assist electrify rural Africa, he said.

“There is a mosaic of sustainable energy options in the world. The essential problem is testing ideas and techniques in a collective fashion,” said Sanyal.

“Other cotton ginning factories in the area should attempt and gain from this experiment. Financial institutions need 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, women’s and LGBT+ rights, human trafficking, home rights and climate modification. Visit http://news.trust.org)