By Nita Bhalla
KITUI, Kenya, June 6 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Kenyan farmer Abel Mutie Mathoka believed it needs to be a joke when he was informed he could water his drought-hit crops more cheaply, cleanly 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, crouching down to check the watermelons on his 10-acre (four-hectare) shared plot in Ituri town in Kenya's southeast Kitui county.
"But it works," he said, strolling over to a close-by tree and plucking a big green pawpaw. "Irrigation with this biodiesel water pump has actually helped me get greater yields, particularly throughout dry spell periods."
Mathoka said his profits had actually doubled in the two years he has been pumping water using biodiesel, which is both more effective and 20 shillings ($0.20) per litre more affordable than routine diesel.
The biodiesel he is utilizing is not simply excellent news for him - it is likewise good news for the world.
Unlike a lot of biofuels, which are obtained from crops such as maize, sugarcane, soybean, rapeseed and jatropha curcas, it is made from a by-product of the cotton-making process.
That implies that as well as being cleaner and more affordable than regular fuel, it is more sustainable than other biofuels since no extra land is required to produce it.
From Brazil to Indonesia, the rush to cultivate biofuel crops has driven forest communities off their land and pressed farmers to switch from crops-for-food to more lucrative crops-for-fuel - worsening food shortages.
"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, managing director of Zaynagro Industries Ltd, the Kitui-based company producing the biodiesel.
"We started 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 likewise to local farmers for irrigation."
More than 1,200 farmers in Kitui have actually up until now invested in biodiesel pumps for watering as part of an initiative released by Zaynagro in 2015, said Zavery.
DRY RIVER BEDS
Climate modification is taking a toll throughout east Africa and significantly unpredictable weather condition is ending up being commonplace in nations such as Kenya, Somalia, Uganda and Ethiopia, resulting in lower rains.
The repeating droughts are ruining 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 aid in March surged by practically 70 percent over a duration of 8 months to 1.1 million, mostly due to bad rains, according to federal government figures.
With nearly half Kenya's 47 counties stated to have a serious scarcity of rain, humanitarian agencies are cautioning of increased cravings in the months ahead.
"Only light rainfall is anticipated through June ... and this is not expected to minimize drought in affected areas of Kenya and Somalia," stated the Famine Early Warning Systems Network in its newest report.
"Well below-average crop production, bad livestock body conditions, and increased regional food rates are anticipated, which will reduce bad families' access to food."
In Kitui's Kyuso area, the indications are already apparent.
Rivers, water pans and dams are drying up as an outcome of the extended dry spell.
Villagers grumble of travelling longer distances - often more than 10 km (6 miles) with their donkeys loaded with empty jerry cans in search of water.
Small-scale farmers, the majority of whom depend on rain-fed farming, go over plans to sell their goats to make ends fulfill if the harvest is bad.
BATTLING DROUGHT WITH BIODIESEL
But not all Kitui's farmers are stressed.
A little however growing number are shedding their concern of dependence on the weather - and buying irrigation systems powered by seed biodiesel through a pay-as-you-go plan released more than 3 years ago.
Neighbouring farmers band together to invest in the irrigation system - which consists of 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 an initial payment, then pay interest-free monthly instalments up until the total is settled. They purchase 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 portion 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 3 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 indicate the scheme as a major advantage in helping improve their output.
"The instalment plan is great. Most farmers do not have the cash and can not easily get a loan to purchase a pump like this," stated 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 means we can pay off the cost of the pump slowly in percentages, 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 promising because they create a circular economy by turning waste to biofuel for revenue, 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 - might assist electrify rural Africa, he stated.
"There is a mosaic of sustainable energy alternatives in the world. The key problem is testing ideas and approaches in a collective fashion," stated Sanyal.
"Other cotton ginning factories in the region need to attempt and learn from this experiment. Banks ought to start explore 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 Fight Drought In Kenya
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