Cotton Waste Biofuel Powers Farmers To Eliminate Drought In Kenya

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By Nita Bhalla


KITUI, Kenya, June 6 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Kenyan farmer Abel Mutie Mathoka thought it must be a joke when he was told he could water his drought-hit crops more inexpensively, cleanly and effectively utilizing a pump sustained by cotton waste.


"Who could believe it's possible to make a fuel 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 village in Kenya's southeast Kitui county.


"But it works," he said, strolling over to a close-by tree and plucking a big green pawpaw. "Irrigation with this biodiesel water pump has actually assisted me get greater yields, especially during drought durations."


Mathoka said his incomes 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 cheaper than routine diesel.


The biodiesel he is using is not simply good news for him - it is likewise excellent news for the world.


Unlike a lot of 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 procedure.


That implies that along with being cleaner and less expensive than routine fuel, it is more sustainable than other biofuels because no extra 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 pressed farmers to change from crops-for-food to more rewarding crops-for-fuel - worsening food scarcities.


"Our biodiesel comes from squashing cotton seeds left over as waste after ginning - the process of separating the seeds from raw cotton," said Taher Zavery, handling 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 up until now bought biodiesel pumps for watering as part of an effort launched by Zaynagro in 2015, said Zavery.


DRY RIVER BEDS


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


The repeating droughts are destroying crops and pastures and are starving animals - pressing countless people in the Horn of Africa to the brink of severe hunger.


The variety of Kenyans in need of food help in March rose by practically 70 percent over a duration of 8 months to 1.1 million, mostly due to bad rains, according to government figures.


With practically half Kenya's 47 counties declared to have a serious scarcity of rain, humanitarian firms are alerting of increased hunger in the months ahead.


"Only light rainfall is forecast through June ... and this is not anticipated to alleviate dry spell in affected locations of Kenya and Somalia," stated the Famine Early Warning Systems Network in its most current report.


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


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


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


Villagers experience longer ranges - in some cases more than 10 km (6 miles) with their donkeys laden with empty jerry cans looking for water.


Small-scale farmers, many of whom depend on rain-fed agriculture, talk about plans to sell their goats to make ends satisfy if the harvest is bad.


BATTLING DROUGHT WITH BIODIESEL


But not all Kitui's farmers are fretted.


A small however growing number are shedding their concern of reliance on the weather condition - and investing in watering systems powered by Zaynagro's cotton seed biodiesel through a pay-as-you-go plan released more than 3 years earlier.


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


The farmers make a preliminary payment, then pay interest-free regular monthly instalments up until the overall is paid off. 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 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 3 months. With the biodiesel pump, I can earn 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 point to the scheme as a major benefit in helping enhance their output.


"The instalment scheme is great. Most farmers don't have the cash and can not quickly get a loan to purchase a pump like this," said Maurice Kitheka Munyoki, 41, as he stood next to his blue biodiesel pump.


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


Zaynagro's initiative is still in its early phases, with few farmers having actually paid back the complete cost of the pumps.


But such biofuel plans are appealing due to the fact that 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 simpleness of the model - user friendly, robust technology, guaranteed supply of biodiesel integrated with a pay-as-you-go scheme - might help amaze rural Africa, he said.


"There is a mosaic of sustainable energy choices worldwide. The essential problem is testing concepts and methods in a collaborative fashion," stated Sanyal.


"Other cotton ginning factories in the region must attempt and gain from this experiment. Financial institutions must start 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, females's and LGBT+ rights, human trafficking, home rights and environment modification. Visit http://news.trust.org)

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