By Nita Bhalla
KITUI, Kenya, June 6 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Kenyan farmer Abel Mutie Mathoka believed it must be a joke when he was told he could water his drought-hit crops more cheaply, easily and efficiently using a pump fuelled 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 village in Kenya's southeast Kitui county.
"But it works," he said, strolling over to a neighboring tree and plucking a large green pawpaw. "Irrigation with this biodiesel water pump has helped me get higher yields, particularly 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 effective and 20 shillings ($0.20) per litre cheaper than routine diesel.
The biodiesel he is utilizing is not simply good news for him - it is also good news for the world.
Unlike most 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 suggests that as well as being cleaner and less expensive than regular fuel, it is more sustainable than other biofuels because no extra land is needed 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 change from crops-for-food to more lucrative crops-for-fuel - exacerbating food lacks.
"Our biodiesel comes from crushing cotton seeds left over as waste after ginning - the procedure of separating the seeds from raw cotton," said Taher Zavery, managing director of Zaynagro Industries Ltd, the Kitui-based company producing the biodiesel.
"We began producing and utilizing it to power our cotton ginning factory in 2011. With increased production, we now utilize it for our trucks, offer it to the United Nations to run some of their buses - and likewise to local farmers for irrigation."
More than 1,200 farmers in Kitui have actually up until now invested in biodiesel pumps for irrigation as part of an effort released by Zaynagro in 2015, stated Zavery.
DRY RIVER BEDS
Climate change is taking a toll across east Africa and increasingly unpredictable weather condition is becoming commonplace in nations such as Kenya, Somalia, Uganda and Ethiopia, resulting in lower rains.
The recurring droughts are damaging crops and pastures and are starving animals - pushing countless individuals in the Horn of Africa to the brink of extreme appetite.
The variety of Kenyans in requirement of food aid in March surged by nearly 70 percent over a period of 8 months to 1.1 million, largely due to poor rains, according to government figures.
With practically half Kenya's 47 counties declared to have a serious lack of rain, humanitarian agencies are warning of increased appetite in the months ahead.
"Only light rains is forecast through June ... and this is not anticipated to ease dry spell in affected locations of Kenya and Somalia," stated the Famine Early Warning Systems Network in its newest report.
"Well below-average crop production, poor animals body conditions, and increased regional food rates are anticipated, which will reduce poor homes' access to food."
In Kitui's Kyuso area, the signs are currently apparent.
Rivers, water pans and dams are drying up as a result of the extended drought.
Villagers experience travelling longer ranges - sometimes more than 10 km (6 miles) with their with empty jerry cans in search of water.
Small-scale farmers, many of whom depend on rain-fed farming, talk about plans to offer their goats to make ends satisfy if the harvest is poor.
BATTLING DROUGHT WITH BIODIESEL
But not all Kitui's farmers are fretted.
A small however growing number are shedding their burden of dependence on the weather - and purchasing irrigation systems powered by Zaynagro's cotton seed biodiesel through a pay-as-you-go plan introduced more than three years back.
Neighbouring farmers band together to purchase the irrigation system - that includes the biodiesel pump, 12 metres of pipelines and 10 litres of biodiesel - at expenses beginning with 32,000 shillings, depending on the size of the pump.
The farmers make a preliminary payment, then pay interest-free monthly instalments until the overall is settled. They buy the biodiesel to run the pumps from Zaynagro at 80 shillings a litre.
Farmer Alex Babu Kitheka, 39, stated the biodiesel pump allowed him to irrigate a bigger part of his one-acre plot, where he grows a range 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 make 45,000 shillings," said Alex Babu Kitheka, standing near his plot in Ilangilo village, 40 km (25 miles) from Kitui town.
CIRCULAR ECONOMY
Other farmers point to the scheme as a major advantage in assisting improve their output.
"The instalment scheme is good. Most farmers do not have the cash and can not easily get a loan to buy a pump like this," said 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 cost of the pump slowly in percentages, and have cash left over to pay the school charges."
Zaynagro's effort is still in its early phases, with few farmers having actually paid back the complete cost of the pumps.
But such biofuel schemes are promising because they develop a circular economy by turning waste to biofuel for revenue, stated Sanjoy Sanyal, senior partner for Clean Energy Finance at the World Resources Institute.
The simpleness of the model - easy-to-use, robust technology, ensured supply of biodiesel combined with a pay-as-you-go scheme - might help electrify rural Africa, he said.
"There is a mosaic of sustainable energy alternatives on the planet. The crucial concern is evaluating ideas and methods in a collaborative fashion," said Sanyal.
"Other cotton ginning factories in the area must try and discover from this experiment. Banks must start experimenting 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, females's and LGBT+ rights, human trafficking, property rights and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org)
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Cotton Waste Biofuel Powers Farmers to Eliminate Drought In Kenya
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