Cotton Waste Biofuel Powers Farmers to Combat Drought In Kenya
By Nita Bhalla
KITUI, Kenya, June 6 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Kenyan farmer Abel Mutie Mathoka thought it must be a joke when he was informed he could irrigate his drought-hit crops more inexpensively, easily and effectively utilizing a pump sustained 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 check 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 close-by tree and plucking a large green pawpaw. "Irrigation with this biodiesel water pump has helped me get greater yields, specifically during drought durations."
Mathoka stated his profits had actually doubled in the two years he has been pumping water utilizing biodiesel, which is both more effective and 20 shillings ($0.20) per litre cheaper than routine diesel.
The biodiesel he is utilizing is not just great news for him - it is also good 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 suggests that as well as being cleaner and less expensive than regular 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 actually driven forest communities off their land and pushed farmers to switch from crops-for-food to more lucrative crops-for-fuel - worsening food scarcities.
"Our biodiesel originates from squashing cotton seeds left over as waste after ginning - the process of separating the seeds from raw cotton," stated 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 some of their buses - and likewise to local farmers for irrigation."
More than 1,200 farmers in Kitui have up until now purchased biodiesel pumps for irrigation as part of an effort introduced by Zaynagro in 2015, stated Zavery.
DRY RIVER BEDS
Climate modification is taking a toll throughout east Africa and increasingly unpredictable weather condition is ending up being commonplace in countries such as Kenya, Somalia, Uganda and Ethiopia, resulting in lower rainfall.
The recurring droughts are damaging crops and pastures and are starving animals - pressing countless individuals in the Horn of Africa to the edge of extreme appetite.
The variety of Kenyans in need of food aid in March surged by practically 70 percent over a duration of eight months to 1.1 million, mostly due to poor rains, according to government figures.
With almost half Kenya's 47 counties stated to have a major scarcity of rain, humanitarian companies are warning of increased cravings in the months ahead.
"Only light rains is anticipated through June ... and this is not anticipated to relieve dry spell in impacted locations 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 regional food costs are prepared for, which will minimize bad families' access to food."
In Kitui's Kyuso area, the signs are currently evident.
Rivers, water pans and dams are drying up as a result of the extended dry spell.
Villagers experience travelling longer ranges - often more than 10 km (6 miles) with their donkeys laden with empty jerry cans in search of water.
Small-scale farmers, most of whom are reliant on rain-fed farming, go over 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 but growing number are shedding their burden of dependence on the weather - and purchasing irrigation systems powered by Zaynagro's cotton seed biodiesel through a pay-as-you-go plan launched more than three years earlier.
Neighbouring farmers band together to purchase the irrigation system - that includes the biodiesel pump, 12 metres of pipelines and 10 litres of biodiesel - at costs starting from 32,000 shillings, depending on the size of the pump.
The farmers make an initial payment, then pay interest-free monthly instalments until the overall is settled. They buy the biodiesel to run the pumps from Zaynagro at 80 shillings a litre.
Farmer Alex Babu Kitheka, 39, stated the biodiesel pump him to irrigate a bigger part of his one-acre plot, where he grows a range of veggies consisting of 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 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 indicate the plan as a major advantage in assisting enhance their output.
"The instalment scheme is excellent. Most farmers do not have the cash and can not quickly 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 assists us a lot. Our yields are good which indicates we can pay off the cost of the pump gradually in little amounts, and have money left over to pay the school costs."
Zaynagro's initiative is still in its early phases, with few farmers having repaid the full cost of the pumps.
But such biofuel schemes are appealing because they produce a circular economy by turning waste to biofuel for revenue, stated Sanjoy Sanyal, senior associate for Clean Energy Finance at the World Resources Institute.
The simplicity of the design - easy-to-use, robust technology, assured 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 choices in the world. The crucial problem is evaluating concepts and methods in a collective style," stated Sanyal.
"Other cotton ginning factories in the region ought to attempt and discover from this experiment. Financial institutions ought to start experimenting 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, females's and LGBT+ rights, human trafficking, residential or commercial property rights and environment modification. Visit http://news.trust.org)