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 water his drought-hit crops more cheaply, cleanly and efficiently utilizing a pump sustained 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, crouching down to examine the watermelons on his 10-acre (four-hectare) shared plot in Ituri village in Kenya's southeast Kitui county.
"But it works," he stated, walking over to a nearby tree and plucking a big green pawpaw. "Irrigation with this biodiesel water pump has actually assisted me get higher yields, especially throughout drought durations."
Mathoka said his incomes 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 cheaper than regular diesel.
The biodiesel he is using is not simply great news for him - it is also good news for the world.
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 process.
That indicates that along with being cleaner and more affordable than routine 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 neighborhoods off their land and pushed farmers to switch from crops-for-food to more successful 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," said Taher Zavery, managing director of Zaynagro Industries Ltd, the Kitui-based business producing the biodiesel.
"We began producing and using 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 up until now invested in biodiesel pumps for watering as part of an initiative introduced by Zaynagro in 2015, stated Zavery.
DRY RIVER BEDS
Climate change is taking a toll throughout east Africa and increasingly irregular weather condition is becoming commonplace in countries such as Kenya, Somalia, Uganda and Ethiopia, leading to lower rains.
The repeating droughts are damaging crops and pastures and are starving animals - pushing millions of individuals in the Horn of Africa to the brink of extreme appetite.
The variety of Kenyans in requirement of food aid in March rose by almost 70 percent over a duration of 8 months to 1.1 million, mostly due to poor rains, according to government figures.
With nearly half Kenya's 47 counties stated to have a severe scarcity of rain, humanitarian companies are alerting of increased appetite in the months ahead.
"Only light rains is anticipated through June ... and this is not anticipated to reduce 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 local food prices are expected, which will minimize poor households' access to food."
In Kitui's Kyuso location, the indications are already evident.
Rivers, water pans and dams are drying up as a result of the extended drought.
Villagers experience travelling longer distances - in some cases more than 10 km (6 miles) with their with empty jerry cans searching for water.
Small-scale farmers, the majority of whom are dependent on rain-fed farming, talk about strategies to sell their goats to make ends fulfill if the harvest is poor.
BATTLING DROUGHT WITH BIODIESEL
But not all Kitui's farmers are stressed.
A small however growing number are shedding their problem of dependence on the weather - and purchasing irrigation systems powered by Zaynagro's cotton seed biodiesel through a pay-as-you-go plan introduced more than 3 years back.
Neighbouring farmers band together to invest in the watering system - that includes the biodiesel pump, 12 metres of pipelines and 10 litres of biodiesel - at expenses starting from 32,000 shillings, depending on the size of the pump.
The farmers make an initial payment, then pay interest-free regular monthly instalments till 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, stated the biodiesel pump enabled him to water a bigger portion of his one-acre plot, where he grows a range of veggies 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," 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 scheme as a significant advantage in helping improve their output.
"The instalment scheme is great. Most farmers don't have the cash and can not quickly 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 plan like this assists us a lot. Our yields are good which indicates we can settle the expense of the pump slowly in little amounts, and have money left over to pay the school costs."
Zaynagro's effort is still in its early stages, with few farmers having actually repaid the full expense of the pumps.
But such biofuel plans are appealing since they produce 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 simpleness of the model - user friendly, robust technology, assured supply of biodiesel combined with a pay-as-you-go plan - could assist electrify rural Africa, he stated.
"There is a mosaic of sustainable energy options worldwide. The key problem is checking concepts and methods in a collaborative style," stated Sanyal.
"Other cotton ginning factories in the area must try and gain from this experiment. Financial organizations should begin exploring with loans to groups of farmers. International donors and financiers require 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)
1
Cotton Waste Biofuel Powers Farmers to Fight Drought In Kenya
Sharyl Hays edited this page 1 month ago