Cotton Waste Biofuel Powers Farmers To Fight Drought In Kenya

By Nita Bhalla


KITUI, Kenya, June 6 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Kenyan farmer Abel Mutie Mathoka believed it should be a joke when he was informed he could irrigate his drought-hit crops more inexpensively, 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 examine 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 neighboring tree and plucking a large green pawpaw. "Irrigation with this biodiesel water pump has assisted me get higher yields, especially throughout drought durations."


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


The biodiesel he is utilizing is not just good news for him - it is also excellent news for the world.


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


That suggests that in addition to being cleaner and cheaper than routine fuel, it is more sustainable than other biofuels because 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 pushed farmers to change from crops-for-food to more profitable crops-for-fuel - exacerbating food lacks.


"Our biodiesel comes from squashing cotton seeds left over as waste after ginning - the procedure of separating the seeds from raw cotton," stated Taher Zavery, managing 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 irrigation."


More than 1,200 farmers in Kitui have so far bought biodiesel pumps for irrigation as part of an initiative introduced by Zaynagro in 2015, stated Zavery.


DRY RIVER BEDS


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


The repeating dry spells are destroying crops and pastures and are starving animals - pushing countless individuals in the Horn of Africa to the verge of extreme cravings.


The number of Kenyans in requirement of food help in March rose by nearly 70 percent over a duration of 8 months to 1.1 million, largely due to poor rains, according to federal government figures.


With nearly half Kenya's 47 counties declared to have a severe scarcity of rain, humanitarian agencies are cautioning of increased appetite in the months ahead.


"Only light rains is forecast through June ... and this is not anticipated to reduce dry spell in affected areas of Kenya and Somalia," said the Famine Early Warning Systems Network in its most current report.


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


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


Rivers, water pans and dams are drying up as a result of the extended drought.


Villagers suffer travelling longer distances - in some cases more than 10 km (6 miles) with their donkeys packed with empty jerry cans searching for water.


Small-scale farmers, the majority of whom are reliant on rain-fed agriculture, talk about 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 worried.


A small but growing number are shedding their concern of dependence on the weather condition - and buying watering systems powered by Zaynagro's cotton seed biodiesel through a pay-as-you-go plan introduced more than three years back.


Neighbouring farmers band together to buy the watering system - which consists of the biodiesel pump, 12 metres of pipelines and 10 litres of biodiesel - at costs beginning from 32,000 shillings, depending upon the size of the pump.


The farmers make an initial payment, then pay interest-free month-to-month instalments up until the overall is settled. They purchase 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 bigger 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 three months. With the biodiesel pump, I can earn 45,000 shillings," said 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 scheme is good. Most farmers do not have the cash and can not easily get a loan to purchase a pump like this," said Maurice Kitheka Munyoki, 41, as he stood beside his blue biodiesel pump.


"Having a plan like this helps us a lot. Our yields are excellent which indicates we can pay off the expense of the pump slowly in percentages, and have money left over to pay the school costs."


Zaynagro's initiative is still in its early stages, with couple of farmers having actually repaid the complete expense of the pumps.


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


The simplicity of the design - easy-to-use, robust innovation, assured supply of biodiesel integrated with a pay-as-you-go scheme - might assist amaze rural Africa, he stated.


"There is a mosaic of sustainable energy options worldwide. The crucial issue is testing concepts and methods in a collaborative fashion," stated Sanyal.


"Other cotton ginning factories in the area must attempt and discover from this experiment. Financial organizations ought to start experimenting with 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, property rights and climate modification. Visit http://news.trust.org)