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 inexpensively, easily and efficiently utilizing a pump fuelled by cotton waste.

“Who could think it’s possible to make a fuel much better than diesel from cotton seeds? I didn’t!” laughed 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, strolling over to a nearby tree and plucking a big green pawpaw. “Irrigation with this biodiesel water pump has actually helped me get higher yields, especially during drought durations.”

Mathoka said his revenues 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 more affordable than regular diesel.

The biodiesel he is using is not simply great news for him - it is also excellent news for the planet.

Unlike a lot of biofuels, which are stemmed from crops such as maize, sugarcane, soybean, rapeseed and jatropha curcas, it is made from a by-product of the cotton-making procedure.

That implies that along with being cleaner and cheaper than regular fuel, it is more sustainable than other biofuels due to the fact that no extra land is needed to produce it.

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

“Our biodiesel originates from squashing cotton seeds left over as waste after ginning - the process of separating the seeds from raw cotton,” said Taher Zavery, handling 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 use it for our trucks, sell it to the United Nations to run some of their buses - and likewise to local farmers for watering.”

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

DRY RIVER BEDS

Climate modification is taking a toll across east Africa and increasingly unpredictable weather is ending up being commonplace in countries such as Kenya, Somalia, Uganda and Ethiopia, leading to lower rains.

The repeating dry spells are damaging crops and pastures and are starving animals - pressing millions of people in the Horn of Africa to the brink of extreme hunger.

The variety of Kenyans in need of food help in March rose by almost 70 percent over a duration of 8 months to 1.1 million, mainly due to poor rains, according to government figures.

With almost half Kenya’s 47 counties declared to have a major shortage of rain, humanitarian agencies are cautioning of increased cravings in the months ahead.

“Only light rains is anticipated through June … and this is not anticipated to relieve drought in affected areas of Kenya and Somalia,” said the Famine Early Warning Systems Network in its latest report.

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

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

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

Villagers experience travelling longer ranges - often more than 10 km (6 miles) with their donkeys laden with empty jerry cans looking for water.

Small-scale farmers, most of whom are dependent on rain-fed agriculture, discuss plans to sell their goats to make ends satisfy if the harvest is poor.

BATTLING DROUGHT WITH BIODIESEL

But not all Kitui’s farmers are stressed.

A little however growing number are shedding their burden of reliance on the weather condition - and investing in irrigation systems powered by Zaynagro’s cotton seed biodiesel through a pay-as-you-go plan introduced more than 3 years earlier.

Neighbouring farmers unite to purchase the irrigation system - which includes the biodiesel pump, 12 metres of pipes and 10 litres of biodiesel - at expenses beginning from 32,000 shillings, depending on the size of the pump.

The farmers make an initial payment, then pay interest-free regular up until the total is paid off. 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 irrigate a larger part of his one-acre plot, where he grows a variety of vegetables 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,” stated Alex Babu Kitheka, standing near his plot in Ilangilo village, 40 km (25 miles) from Kitui town.

CIRCULAR ECONOMY

Other farmers point to the plan as a major advantage in helping enhance their output.

“The instalment plan is great. Most farmers don’t have the cash and can not easily get a loan to buy a pump like this,” stated Maurice Kitheka Munyoki, 41, as he stood beside his blue biodiesel pump.

“Having a plan like this helps us a lot. Our yields are good which indicates we can settle the expense of the pump slowly in small quantities, and have cash left over to pay the school fees.”

Zaynagro’s initiative is still in its early phases, with couple of farmers having repaid the full cost of the pumps.

But such biofuel plans are appealing because they produce a circular economy by turning waste to biofuel for earnings, said Sanjoy Sanyal, senior associate for Clean Energy Finance at the World Resources Institute.

The simplicity of the model - user friendly, robust technology, ensured supply of biodiesel combined with a pay-as-you-go plan - could assist energize rural Africa, he stated.

“There is a mosaic of sustainable energy alternatives worldwide. The crucial concern is evaluating concepts and methods in a collective fashion,” stated Sanyal.

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