By Nita Bhalla
KITUI, Kenya, June 6 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Kenyan farmer Abel Mutie Mathoka thought it should be a joke when he was informed he might irrigate his drought-hit crops more cheaply, easily and efficiently utilizing 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, 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 stated, walking over to a close-by tree and plucking a large green pawpaw. "Irrigation with this biodiesel water pump has assisted me get higher yields, particularly during drought periods."
Mathoka stated his earnings had doubled in the two 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 using is not just great news for him - it is likewise great news for the world.
Unlike many biofuels, which are originated from crops such as maize, sugarcane, soybean, rapeseed and jatropha, it is made from a byproduct of the cotton-making process.
That implies that in addition to being cleaner and less expensive than regular fuel, it is more sustainable than other biofuels due to the fact that no additional land is needed to produce it.
From Brazil to Indonesia, the rush to cultivate biofuel crops has driven forest neighborhoods off their land and pressed farmers to switch from crops-for-food to more successful crops-for-fuel - intensifying food lacks.
"Our biodiesel originates 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 business 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, sell 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 up until now purchased biodiesel pumps for irrigation as part of an effort launched by Zaynagro in 2015, said Zavery.
DRY RIVER BEDS
Climate modification is taking a toll throughout east Africa and progressively erratic weather is becoming commonplace in nations such as Kenya, Somalia, Uganda and Ethiopia, leading to lower rains.
The repeating droughts are ruining crops and pastures and are starving animals - pressing millions of individuals in the Horn of Africa to the brink of extreme cravings.
The variety of Kenyans in need of food help in March surged by practically 70 percent over a duration of eight months to 1.1 million, largely due to bad rains, according to government figures.
With nearly half Kenya's 47 counties stated to have a severe lack of rain, humanitarian agencies are warning of increased appetite in the months ahead.
"Only light rainfall is forecast through June ... and this is not anticipated to ease drought in impacted locations of Kenya and Somalia," said the Famine Early Warning Systems Network in its most current report.
"Well below-average crop production, bad animals body conditions, and increased local food costs are prepared for, which will minimize bad families' access to food."
In Kitui's Kyuso location, the indications are currently evident.
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 laden with empty jerry cans looking for water.
Small-scale farmers, many of whom are dependent on rain-fed agriculture, talk about strategies to sell their goats to make ends satisfy if the harvest is bad.
BATTLING DROUGHT WITH BIODIESEL
But not all Kitui's farmers are fretted.
A little however growing number are shedding their problem 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 3 years back.
Neighbouring farmers unite to purchase the watering system - that includes the biodiesel pump, 12 metres of pipes and 10 litres of biodiesel - at costs beginning with 32,000 shillings, depending on the size of the pump.
The farmers make a preliminary payment, then pay interest-free regular monthly instalments up until the total is settled. They buy 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 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 town, 40 km (25 miles) from Kitui town.
CIRCULAR ECONOMY
Other farmers point to the plan as a significant benefit in helping enhance their output.
"The instalment plan is good. Most farmers do not have the cash and can not easily get a loan to purchase a pump like this," said Maurice Kitheka Munyoki, 41, as he stood beside his blue biodiesel pump.
"Having a scheme like this helps us a lot. Our yields are good which suggests we can settle the expense of the pump gradually in small quantities, and have money left over to pay the school costs."
Zaynagro's initiative is still in its early phases, with couple of farmers having actually repaid the complete cost of the pumps.
But such biofuel schemes are appealing because they create a circular economy by turning waste to biofuel for profit, stated Sanjoy Sanyal, senior associate for Clean Energy Finance at the World .
The simpleness of the design - user friendly, robust technology, guaranteed supply of biodiesel integrated with a pay-as-you-go scheme - could assist electrify rural Africa, he said.
"There is a mosaic of sustainable energy choices on the planet. The essential issue is checking concepts and approaches in a collective fashion," stated Sanyal.
"Other cotton ginning factories in the region should try and learn from this experiment. Financial organizations must start try out 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, ladies's and LGBT+ rights, human trafficking, property rights and climate modification. Visit http://news.trust.org)
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Cotton Waste Biofuel Powers Farmers to Combat Drought In Kenya
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