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 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 fuelled by cotton waste.
"Who could think it's possible to make a fuel better than diesel from cotton seeds? I didn't!" laughed Mathoka, crouching down to check the watermelons on his 10-acre (four-hectare) shared plot in Ituri town in Kenya's southeast Kitui county.
"But it works," he said, walking over to a close-by tree and plucking a big green pawpaw. "Irrigation with this biodiesel water pump has actually helped me get higher yields, especially during dry spell durations."
Mathoka said 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 more affordable than regular diesel.
The biodiesel he is using is not just good news for him - it is also great news for the world.
Unlike many 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 means that along with being cleaner and more affordable 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 neighborhoods off their land and pressed farmers to switch from crops-for-food to more rewarding crops-for-fuel - exacerbating food lacks.
"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, 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 utilize it for our trucks, offer it to the United Nations to run some of their buses - and also to local farmers for irrigation."
More than 1,200 farmers in Kitui have actually so far bought biodiesel pumps for watering as part of an effort launched by Zaynagro in 2015, said Zavery.
DRY RIVER BEDS
Climate modification is taking a toll across east Africa and progressively unpredictable weather condition is becoming commonplace in such as Kenya, Somalia, Uganda and Ethiopia, resulting in lower rains.
The recurring droughts are destroying crops and pastures and are starving animals - pushing millions of people in the Horn of Africa to the edge of severe hunger.
The number of Kenyans in requirement of food help in March rose by almost 70 percent over a period of eight months to 1.1 million, largely due to poor rains, according to federal government figures.
With nearly half Kenya's 47 counties stated to have a severe shortage of rain, humanitarian agencies are warning of increased appetite in the months ahead.
"Only light rainfall is forecast through June ... and this is not anticipated 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 costs are expected, which will reduce poor households' access to food."
In Kitui's Kyuso location, the signs are currently evident.
Rivers, water pans and dams are drying up as an outcome of the extended drought.
Villagers experience travelling longer ranges - sometimes more than 10 km (6 miles) with their donkeys loaded with empty jerry cans searching for water.
Small-scale farmers, most of whom are reliant on rain-fed farming, discuss plans to sell their goats to make ends satisfy if the harvest is poor.
BATTLING DROUGHT WITH BIODIESEL
But not all Kitui's farmers are fretted.
A small but growing number are shedding their problem of reliance on the weather condition - and buying watering systems powered by Zaynagro's cotton seed biodiesel through a pay-as-you-go scheme launched more than three years back.
Neighbouring farmers unite to purchase the watering system - which consists of the biodiesel pump, 12 metres of pipelines and 10 litres of biodiesel - at costs beginning with 32,000 shillings, depending on the size of the pump.
The farmers make a preliminary payment, then pay interest-free regular monthly instalments 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, stated the biodiesel pump enabled him to irrigate a larger portion of his one-acre plot, where he grows a range of vegetables 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 village, 40 km (25 miles) from Kitui town.
CIRCULAR ECONOMY
Other farmers indicate the scheme as a significant advantage in helping improve their output.
"The instalment plan is good. Most farmers do not 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 great which indicates we can settle the expense of the pump slowly in small quantities, and have money left over to pay the school fees."
Zaynagro's initiative is still in its early stages, with couple of farmers having actually paid back the full expense of the pumps.
But such biofuel plans are promising because they create 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 design - easy-to-use, robust technology, guaranteed supply of biodiesel integrated with a pay-as-you-go scheme - could help energize rural Africa, he said.
"There is a mosaic of sustainable energy choices worldwide. The essential problem is testing ideas and techniques in a collective style," stated Sanyal.
"Other cotton ginning factories in the area must try and gain from this experiment. Financial institutions ought to start try out loans to groups of farmers. International donors and financiers 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, home rights and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org)
