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 cheaply, cleanly and efficiently using a pump fuelled by cotton waste.
"Who could think it's possible to make a fuel better than diesel from cotton seeds? I didn't!" chuckled Mathoka, crouching 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 nearby tree and plucking a big green pawpaw. "Irrigation with this biodiesel water pump has actually helped me get greater yields, specifically throughout drought durations."
Mathoka stated his incomes had actually doubled in the 2 years he has actually been pumping water using biodiesel, which is both more effective and 20 shillings ($0.20) per litre cheaper than regular diesel.
The biodiesel he is utilizing is not just good news for him - it is also great news for the planet.
Unlike a lot of biofuels, which are derived from crops such as maize, sugarcane, soybean, rapeseed and jatropha curcas, it is made from a by-product of the cotton-making process.
That means that in addition to being cleaner and less expensive than regular fuel, it is more sustainable than other biofuels since no additional 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 switch from crops-for-food to more profitable crops-for-fuel - worsening food scarcities.
"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 business 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 also to regional farmers for irrigation."
More than 1,200 farmers in Kitui have so far invested in 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 progressively erratic weather is becoming commonplace in nations such as Kenya, Somalia, Uganda and Ethiopia, resulting in lower rains.
The recurring droughts are damaging crops and pastures and are starving animals - pressing countless people in the Horn of Africa to the brink of extreme cravings.
The number of Kenyans in need of food aid in March surged by almost 70 percent over a duration of eight months to 1.1 million, mainly due to bad rains, according to federal government figures.
With nearly half Kenya's 47 counties stated to have a major scarcity of rain, humanitarian firms are warning of increased hunger in the months ahead.
"Only light rainfall is anticipated through June ... and this is not expected to relieve drought in affected areas of Kenya and Somalia," stated 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 decrease bad families' access to food."
In Kitui's Kyuso area, the signs are currently obvious.
Rivers, water pans and dams are drying up as a result of the prolonged drought.
Villagers experience trekking longer distances - sometimes more than 10 km (6 miles) with their donkeys packed with empty jerry cans searching for water.
Small-scale farmers, the majority of whom depend on rain-fed agriculture, go over plans to sell their goats to make ends fulfill if the harvest is bad.
WITH BIODIESEL
But not all Kitui's farmers are fretted.
A little however growing number are shedding their problem of reliance 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 ago.
Neighbouring farmers unite to buy the watering system - which includes the biodiesel pump, 12 metres of pipes and 10 litres of biodiesel - at costs beginning with 32,000 shillings, depending upon the size of the pump.
The farmers make a preliminary payment, then pay interest-free month-to-month instalments up 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, said the biodiesel pump allowed him to irrigate 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 3 months. With the biodiesel pump, I can make 45,000 shillings," stated Alex Babu Kitheka, standing near his plot in Ilangilo village, 40 km (25 miles) from Kitui town.
CIRCULAR ECONOMY
Other farmers point to the plan as a significant benefit in assisting improve their output.
"The instalment plan is great. Most farmers don't 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 plan like this helps us a lot. Our yields are excellent which means we can pay off the expense of the pump gradually in small amounts, and have cash left over to pay the school charges."
Zaynagro's initiative is still in its early phases, with couple of farmers having repaid the complete expense of the pumps.
But such biofuel schemes are promising since they produce a circular economy by turning waste to biofuel for earnings, said Sanjoy Sanyal, senior partner for Clean Energy Finance at the World Resources Institute.
The simpleness of the model - user friendly, robust innovation, assured supply of biodiesel integrated with a pay-as-you-go plan - might help amaze rural Africa, he said.
"There is a mosaic of sustainable energy options in the world. The key issue is checking concepts and approaches in a collaborative style," stated Sanyal.
"Other cotton ginning factories in the region must attempt and gain from this experiment. Banks need to start explore 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, ladies's and LGBT+ rights, human trafficking, property rights and environment modification. Visit http://news.trust.org)
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Cotton Waste Biofuel Powers Farmers to Combat Drought In Kenya
Dyan Beaufort edited this page 2025-01-14 21:19:52 +08:00