By Nita Bhalla
KITUI, Kenya, June 6 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Kenyan farmer Abel Mutie Mathoka thought it should be a joke when he was told he might water his drought-hit crops more cheaply, easily and efficiently utilizing a pump sustained 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 inspect the watermelons on his 10-acre (four-hectare) shared plot in Ituri town in Kenya's southeast Kitui county.
"But it works," he stated, strolling over to a neighboring tree and plucking a big green pawpaw. "Irrigation with this biodiesel water pump has helped me get greater yields, especially throughout dry spell periods."
Mathoka said his earnings had doubled in the two years he has actually 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 just excellent 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, it is made from a byproduct of the cotton-making procedure.
That implies that along with being cleaner and less expensive than routine 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 actually driven forest communities off their land and pressed farmers to change from crops-for-food to more profitable crops-for-fuel - intensifying food scarcities.
"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, handling director of Zaynagro Industries Ltd, the Kitui-based business 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, offer 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 so far invested in biodiesel pumps for watering as part of an effort launched by Zaynagro in 2015, said Zavery.
DRY RIVER BEDS
Climate change is taking a toll across east Africa and progressively unpredictable weather is becoming commonplace in countries such as Kenya, Somalia, Uganda and Ethiopia, leading to lower rainfall.
The recurring dry spells are and pastures and are starving animals - pressing millions of individuals in the Horn of Africa to the edge of severe hunger.
The number of Kenyans in requirement of food aid in March surged by almost 70 percent over a period of eight months to 1.1 million, mostly due to poor rains, according to government figures.
With almost half Kenya's 47 counties declared to have a severe scarcity of rain, humanitarian firms are alerting of increased hunger in the months ahead.
"Only light rainfall is forecast through June ... and this is not expected to reduce dry spell in impacted areas of Kenya and Somalia," stated the Famine Early Warning Systems Network in its latest report.
"Well below-average crop production, bad livestock body conditions, and increased local food rates are anticipated, which will reduce bad homes' access to food."
In Kitui's Kyuso location, the signs are currently apparent.
Rivers, water pans and dams are drying up as an outcome of the extended dry spell.
Villagers complain of travelling longer ranges - in some cases more than 10 km (6 miles) with their donkeys loaded with empty jerry cans searching for water.
Small-scale farmers, the majority of whom depend on rain-fed farming, discuss plans to offer their goats to make ends fulfill if the harvest is bad.
BATTLING DROUGHT WITH BIODIESEL
But not all Kitui's farmers are fretted.
A small however growing number are shedding their concern of reliance on the weather condition - 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 watering system - which consists of the biodiesel pump, 12 metres of pipes 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 month-to-month instalments till the overall 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 larger portion of his one-acre plot, where he grows a range 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 3 months. With the biodiesel pump, I can earn 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 improve their output.
"The instalment plan is excellent. Most farmers do not have the cash and can not quickly get a loan to buy a pump like this," stated 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 excellent which implies we can settle the expense of the pump slowly in small quantities, and have cash left over to pay the school charges."
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 promising since they create a circular economy by turning waste to biofuel for earnings, stated Sanjoy Sanyal, senior partner for Clean Energy Finance at the World Resources Institute.
The simplicity of the design - user friendly, robust technology, ensured supply of biodiesel combined with a pay-as-you-go plan - might assist energize rural Africa, he said.
"There is a mosaic of sustainable energy alternatives in the world. The crucial concern is checking ideas and techniques in a collective style," stated Sanyal.
"Other cotton ginning factories in the region need to try and find out from this experiment. Banks ought to begin exploring 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, home rights and environment change. Visit http://news.trust.org)
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Cotton Waste Biofuel Powers Farmers to Fight Drought In Kenya
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