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 might irrigate his drought-hit crops more cheaply, cleanly and efficiently 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!” laughed 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 said, walking over to a nearby tree and plucking a big green pawpaw. “Irrigation with this biodiesel water pump has actually assisted me get greater yields, especially throughout dry spell durations.”

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 more affordable than routine diesel.

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

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

That indicates that in addition to being cleaner and less expensive than routine fuel, it is more sustainable than other biofuels because no additional land is required to it.

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

“Our biodiesel comes from squashing cotton seeds left over as waste after ginning - the process of separating the seeds from raw cotton,” stated Taher Zavery, handling 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, sell it to the United Nations to run a few of their buses - and likewise to local farmers for irrigation.”

More than 1,200 farmers in Kitui have up until now bought biodiesel pumps for irrigation as part of an effort launched by Zaynagro in 2015, stated Zavery.

DRY RIVER BEDS

Climate change is taking a toll throughout east Africa and progressively unpredictable weather is becoming commonplace in countries such as Kenya, Somalia, Uganda and Ethiopia, resulting in lower rains.

The recurring droughts are destroying crops and pastures and are starving animals - pushing countless individuals in the Horn of Africa to the edge of severe hunger.

The number of Kenyans in requirement of food help in March surged by practically 70 percent over a period of eight months to 1.1 million, mostly due to poor rains, according to federal government figures.

With practically half Kenya’s 47 counties stated to have a major scarcity 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 relieve 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 regional food rates are anticipated, which will lower bad families’ access to food.”

In Kitui’s Kyuso location, the signs are currently obvious.

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

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

Small-scale farmers, many of whom depend on rain-fed agriculture, go over 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 worried.

A little but growing number are shedding their burden of dependence on the weather - and purchasing watering systems powered by Zaynagro’s cotton seed biodiesel through a pay-as-you-go scheme introduced more than three years ago.

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

The farmers make an initial payment, then pay interest-free regular monthly instalments till the overall is paid off. 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 variety 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,” said Alex Babu Kitheka, standing near his plot in Ilangilo village, 40 km (25 miles) from Kitui town.

CIRCULAR ECONOMY

Other farmers indicate the plan as a significant advantage in helping improve their output.

“The instalment scheme is great. Most farmers do not have the cash 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 great which means we can pay off the expense of the pump slowly in percentages, and have cash left over to pay the school costs.”

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

But such biofuel plans are promising because they produce 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 design - easy-to-use, robust technology, ensured supply of biodiesel combined with a pay-as-you-go scheme - could assist energize rural Africa, he stated.

“There is a mosaic of sustainable energy choices in the world. The key problem is testing ideas and techniques in a collective fashion,” stated Sanyal.

“Other cotton ginning factories in the region should try and learn from this experiment. Financial institutions must begin explore loans to groups of farmers. International donors and investors 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, ladies’s and LGBT+ rights, human trafficking, residential or commercial property rights and climate modification. Visit http://news.trust.org)