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 believed it must be a joke when he was informed he could water his drought-hit crops more cheaply, easily and effectively utilizing a pump fuelled by cotton waste.

“Who could think it’s possible to make a fuel much 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 village in Kenya’s southeast Kitui county.

“But it works,” he stated, walking over to a neighboring tree and plucking a big green pawpaw. “Irrigation with this biodiesel water pump has assisted me get greater yields, particularly throughout dry spell periods.”

Mathoka said his profits had doubled in the 2 years he has been pumping water utilizing biodiesel, which is both more efficient and 20 shillings ($0.20) per litre more affordable than routine diesel.

The biodiesel he is utilizing is not simply great news for him – it is also excellent news for the world.

Unlike many biofuels, which are derived from crops such as maize, sugarcane, soybean, rapeseed and jatropha, it is made from a by-product of the cotton-making procedure.

That suggests that along with being cleaner and cheaper than routine fuel, it is more sustainable than other biofuels since no additional land is needed to produce it.

From Brazil to Indonesia, the rush to cultivate biofuel crops has driven forest communities off their land and pushed farmers to change from crops-for-food to more rewarding crops-for-fuel – exacerbating food shortages.

“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, handling 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, sell 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 up until now bought biodiesel pumps for irrigation as part of an effort released by Zaynagro in 2015, said Zavery.

DRY RIVER BEDS

Climate change is taking a toll across east Africa and progressively erratic weather is ending up being commonplace in countries such as Kenya, Somalia, Uganda and Ethiopia, resulting in lower rainfall.

The repeating dry spells are ruining crops and pastures and are starving animals – pressing countless people in the Horn of Africa to the edge of extreme hunger.

The variety of Kenyans in need of food help in March surged by almost 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 severe scarcity of rain, humanitarian firms are cautioning of increased appetite in the months ahead.

“Only light rainfall is anticipated through June … and this is not expected to reduce drought in affected 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 regional food costs are expected, which will decrease poor homes’ access to food.”

In Kitui’s Kyuso location, the indications are currently obvious.

Rivers, water pans and dams are drying up as an outcome of the extended dry spell.

Villagers suffer travelling longer distances – in some cases more than 10 km (6 miles) with their donkeys laden with empty jerry cans in search of water.

Small-scale farmers, the majority of whom depend on rain-fed farming, go over plans to offer 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 buying watering systems powered by seed biodiesel through a pay-as-you-go scheme launched more than 3 years earlier.

Neighbouring farmers unite to purchase the irrigation system – which consists of the biodiesel pump, 12 metres of pipes and 10 litres of biodiesel – at costs beginning from 32,000 shillings, depending upon the size of the pump.

The farmers make a preliminary payment, then pay interest-free monthly instalments up until the overall 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 larger portion 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,” 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 assisting improve their output.

“The instalment plan 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 beside his blue biodiesel pump.

“Having a scheme like this helps us a lot. Our yields are excellent which suggests we can pay off the expense of the pump slowly 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 actually repaid the full cost of the pumps.

But such biofuel plans are appealing since they develop a circular economy by turning waste to biofuel for earnings, stated Sanjoy Sanyal, senior associate for Clean Energy Finance at the World Resources Institute.

The simplicity of the model – user friendly, robust technology, assured supply of biodiesel integrated with a pay-as-you-go plan – might assist electrify rural Africa, he said.

“There is a mosaic of sustainable energy alternatives in the world. The key concern is checking ideas and methods in a collaborative fashion,” stated Sanyal.

“Other cotton ginning factories in the area need to try and learn from this experiment. Financial organizations ought to begin explore loans to groups of farmers. International donors and investors 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, home rights and environment modification. Visit http://news.trust.org)