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 might water his drought-hit crops more cheaply, cleanly and effectively utilizing a pump fuelled by cotton waste.

"Who could believe it’s possible to make a fuel much better than diesel from cotton seeds? I didn’t!” chuckled Mathoka, bending down to inspect 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 neighboring tree and plucking a large green pawpaw. “Irrigation with this biodiesel water pump has helped me get greater yields, especially throughout drought periods.“

Mathoka said his earnings had actually doubled in the 2 years he has been pumping water utilizing biodiesel, which is both more efficient and 20 shillings ($0.20) per litre less expensive than regular diesel.

The biodiesel he is using is not just excellent news for him - it is likewise excellent news for the planet.

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 suggests that as well as 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 actually driven forest communities off their land and pushed farmers to change from crops-for-food to more profitable crops-for-fuel - exacerbating food scarcities.

"Our biodiesel originates from crushing 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 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 watering.“

More than 1,200 farmers in Kitui have actually so far bought biodiesel pumps for irrigation 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 erratic weather condition is ending up being commonplace in countries such as Kenya, Somalia, Uganda and Ethiopia, resulting in lower rains.

The recurring droughts are destroying crops and pastures and are starving animals - pressing millions of people in the Horn of Africa to the edge of severe appetite.

The variety of Kenyans in requirement of food aid in March rose by nearly 70 percent over a duration of eight months to 1.1 million, largely due to bad rains, according to federal government figures.

With practically half Kenya’s 47 counties declared to have a severe lack of rain, humanitarian agencies are cautioning of increased hunger in the months ahead.

"Only light rainfall is forecast through June ... and this is not anticipated to alleviate drought in impacted areas of Kenya and Somalia,” stated the Famine Early Warning Systems Network in its newest report.

"Well below-average crop production, bad animals body conditions, and increased regional food rates are anticipated, which will minimize poor homes’ access to food.“

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

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

Villagers experience 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, most of whom are reliant on rain-fed agriculture, talk about strategies to sell their goats to make ends meet 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 dependence on the weather - and purchasing watering systems powered by Zaynagro’s cotton seed biodiesel through a pay-as-you-go plan released more than three years earlier.

Neighbouring farmers band together to purchase 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 monthly 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 allowed him to water a larger part of his one-acre plot, where he grows a range 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,” stated Alex Babu Kitheka, standing near his plot in Ilangilo village, 40 km (25 miles) from Kitui town.

CIRCULAR ECONOMY

Other farmers indicate the scheme as a significant benefit in helping improve their output.

"The instalment plan is excellent. Most farmers do not have the cash and can not easily 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 scheme like this assists us a lot. Our yields are excellent which means we can settle the expense of the pump slowly in percentages, and have money left over to pay the school charges.“

is still in its early stages, with few farmers having repaid the full cost of the pumps.

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

The simpleness of the design - easy-to-use, robust technology, guaranteed supply of biodiesel combined with a pay-as-you-go plan - could assist energize rural Africa, he said.

"There is a mosaic of sustainable energy options in the world. The essential issue is checking concepts and techniques in a collaborative fashion,” said Sanyal.

"Other cotton ginning factories in the region must try and learn from this experiment. Financial institutions must start explore loans to groups of farmers. International donors and investors 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, women’s and LGBT+ rights, human trafficking, residential or commercial property rights and environment change. Visit http://news.trust.org)