GitLab

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 could irrigate his drought-hit crops more cheaply, easily and effectively 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!" chuckled Mathoka, bending down to examine 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 actually helped me get greater yields, particularly throughout drought durations."

Mathoka said his profits had 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 good news for him - it is likewise great news for the planet.

Unlike most 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 process.

That implies that in addition to being cleaner and cheaper than routine 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 neighborhoods off their land and pressed farmers to switch from crops-for-food to more lucrative crops-for-fuel - exacerbating food shortages.

"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 began 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 some 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 irrigation as part of an initiative introduced by Zaynagro in 2015, said Zavery.

DRY RIVER BEDS

Climate change is taking a toll throughout east Africa and significantly irregular weather is becoming commonplace in countries such as Kenya, Somalia, Uganda and Ethiopia, resulting in lower rainfall.

The recurring dry spells are damaging crops and pastures and are starving animals - pushing countless individuals in the Horn of Africa to the edge of severe hunger.

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

With practically half Kenya's 47 counties stated to have a severe scarcity of rain, humanitarian agencies are warning of increased cravings in the months ahead.

"Only light rainfall is forecast through June ... and this is not anticipated to minimize drought in impacted locations of Kenya and Somalia," said the Famine Early Warning Systems in its newest report.

"Well below-average crop production, poor animals body conditions, and increased local food rates are expected, which will reduce poor families' access to food."

In Kitui's Kyuso area, the signs are already evident.

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

Villagers grumble of trekking longer distances - sometimes more than 10 km (6 miles) with their donkeys packed with empty jerry cans in search of water.

Small-scale farmers, the majority of whom are dependent on rain-fed agriculture, talk about strategies to offer their goats to make ends satisfy if the harvest is poor.

BATTLING DROUGHT WITH BIODIESEL

But not all Kitui's farmers are worried.

A little however growing number are shedding their problem of dependence on the weather - and investing in irrigation systems powered by Zaynagro's cotton seed biodiesel through a pay-as-you-go scheme introduced more than 3 years back.

Neighbouring farmers band together to invest in the irrigation system - that includes the biodiesel pump, 12 metres of pipelines and 10 litres of biodiesel - at expenses beginning with 32,000 shillings, depending upon the size of the pump.

The farmers make a preliminary payment, then pay interest-free monthly instalments up until the total is paid off. They purchase the biodiesel to run the pumps from Zaynagro at 80 shillings a litre.

Farmer Alex Babu Kitheka, 39, said the biodiesel pump permitted him to irrigate a bigger 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 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 indicate the plan as a major advantage in assisting improve their output.

"The instalment plan is good. Most farmers do not have the cash and can not easily get a loan to buy a pump like this," said Maurice Kitheka Munyoki, 41, as he stood next to his blue biodiesel pump.

"Having a scheme like this helps us a lot. Our yields are excellent which implies we can settle the cost of the pump gradually in little amounts, and have cash left over to pay the school charges."

Zaynagro's effort is still in its early phases, with couple of farmers having actually paid back the complete expense of the pumps.

But such biofuel plans are promising since they create a circular economy by turning waste to biofuel for revenue, said Sanjoy Sanyal, senior partner for Clean Energy Finance at the World Resources Institute.

The simpleness of the model - user friendly, robust innovation, guaranteed supply of biodiesel combined with a pay-as-you-go plan - could help energize rural Africa, he said.

"There is a mosaic of sustainable energy choices worldwide. The key problem is checking ideas and techniques in a collaborative fashion," stated Sanyal.

"Other cotton ginning factories in the area ought to attempt and gain from this experiment. Financial organizations 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, females's and LGBT+ rights, human trafficking, home rights and climate modification. Visit http://news.trust.org)