By Nita Bhalla
KITUI, Kenya, June 6 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Kenyan farmer Abel Mutie Mathoka believed it must be a joke when he was informed he might water his drought-hit crops more cheaply, cleanly and efficiently using 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!" chuckled 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 stated, walking over to a neighboring tree and plucking a big green pawpaw. "Irrigation with this biodiesel water pump has actually assisted me get higher yields, especially throughout dry spell durations."
Mathoka said his incomes 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 more affordable than routine diesel.
The biodiesel he is using is not simply excellent news for him - it is also great news for the planet.
Unlike a lot of biofuels, which are obtained from crops such as maize, sugarcane, soybean, rapeseed and jatropha curcas, it is made from a byproduct of the cotton-making procedure.
That means that as well as being cleaner and more affordable than routine fuel, it is more sustainable than other biofuels since no additional land is required to produce it.
From Brazil to Indonesia, the rush to cultivate biofuel crops has driven forest neighborhoods off their land and pushed farmers to change from crops-for-food to more lucrative crops-for-fuel - exacerbating food scarcities.
"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, handling 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 actually up until now invested in biodiesel pumps for irrigation as part of an initiative introduced by Zaynagro in 2015, stated Zavery.
DRY RIVER BEDS
Climate modification is taking a toll across east Africa and significantly irregular weather is ending up being commonplace in nations such as Kenya, Somalia, Uganda and Ethiopia, leading to lower rainfall.
The recurring dry spells are damaging crops and pastures and are starving animals - pushing countless people in the Horn of Africa to the edge of severe cravings.
The variety of Kenyans in need of food help in March surged by almost 70 percent over a period of eight months to 1.1 million, mostly due to bad rains, according to government figures.
With almost half Kenya's 47 counties declared to have a severe lack of rain, humanitarian companies are warning of increased cravings in the months ahead.
"Only light rainfall is forecast through June ... and this is not anticipated to alleviate drought in impacted locations of Kenya and Somalia," stated the Famine Early Warning Systems Network in its most current report.
"Well below-average crop production, bad animals body conditions, and increased local food prices are anticipated, which will reduce bad households' access to food."
In Kitui's Kyuso area, the indications are already apparent.
Rivers, water pans and dams are drying up as a result of the extended drought.
Villagers suffer travelling 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, the majority of whom are reliant on rain-fed farming, talk about plans to offer their goats to make ends meet 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 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 released more than 3 years ago.
Neighbouring farmers unite to buy the irrigation system - that includes the biodiesel pump, 12 metres of pipelines and 10 litres of biodiesel - at expenses starting from 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 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 irrigate a larger part of his one-acre plot, where he grows a variety of vegetables 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 town, 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 don't have the money 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 plan like this assists us a lot. Our yields are excellent which suggests we can settle the expense of the pump slowly in percentages, and have money left over to pay the school fees."
Zaynagro's effort is still in its early stages, with couple of farmers having repaid the full cost of the pumps.
But such biofuel schemes are promising due to the fact that they produce 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 design - user friendly, robust technology, assured supply of biodiesel with a pay-as-you-go scheme - could assist electrify rural Africa, he said.
"There is a mosaic of sustainable energy alternatives on the planet. The essential concern is testing ideas and techniques in a collective fashion," stated Sanyal.
"Other cotton ginning factories in the area ought to attempt and gain from this experiment. Banks need to begin experimenting with 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 change. Visit http://news.trust.org)
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Cotton Waste Biofuel Powers Farmers to Eliminate Drought In Kenya
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