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 believed it needs to be a joke when he was informed he could water his drought-hit crops more inexpensively, easily and efficiently 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!” chuckled Mathoka, bending down to inspect the watermelons on his 10-acre (four-hectare) shared plot in Ituri village in Kenya’s southeast Kitui county.

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

Mathoka said his incomes had actually doubled in the two years he has actually been pumping water using 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 excellent news for him – it is also excellent news for the world.

Unlike most 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 more affordable than routine fuel, it is more sustainable than other biofuels since no extra land is required to produce it.

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

“Our biodiesel comes from squashing cotton seeds left over as waste after ginning – the procedure of separating the seeds from raw cotton,” stated Taher Zavery, managing director of Zaynagro Industries Ltd, the Kitui-based company producing the biodiesel.

“We began producing and utilizing 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 a few of their buses – and also to local farmers for irrigation.”

More than 1,200 farmers in Kitui have actually so far purchased biodiesel pumps for irrigation as part of an initiative launched by in 2015, said Zavery.

DRY RIVER BEDS

Climate modification is taking a toll throughout east Africa and significantly erratic weather condition is becoming 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 millions of individuals in the Horn of Africa to the brink of severe appetite.

The variety of Kenyans in requirement of food help in March surged by almost 70 percent over a period of 8 months to 1.1 million, mostly due to poor rains, according to government figures.

With almost half Kenya’s 47 counties declared to have a major shortage of rain, humanitarian companies are cautioning of increased cravings in the months ahead.

“Only light rainfall is anticipated through June … and this is not expected to relieve drought in impacted locations of Kenya and Somalia,” stated the Famine Early Warning Systems Network in its latest report.

“Well below-average crop production, bad animals body conditions, and increased regional food prices are prepared for, which will lower bad households’ access to food.”

In Kitui’s Kyuso area, the signs are already obvious.

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

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

Small-scale farmers, most of whom depend on rain-fed agriculture, talk about strategies 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 small however growing number are shedding their problem of reliance on the weather – and purchasing watering systems powered by Zaynagro’s cotton seed biodiesel through a pay-as-you-go scheme introduced more than three years earlier.

Neighbouring farmers unite to purchase the watering system – which consists of the biodiesel pump, 12 metres of pipelines and 10 litres of biodiesel – at expenses 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 till 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 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 three months. With the biodiesel pump, I can make 45,000 shillings,” said 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 major benefit in helping enhance their output.

“The instalment scheme is excellent. Most farmers do not have the cash and can not quickly 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 assists us a lot. Our yields are great which indicates we can settle the expense of the pump slowly in percentages, and have money left over to pay the school costs.”

Zaynagro’s initiative is still in its early stages, with couple of farmers having paid back the complete expense of the pumps.

But such biofuel schemes are promising due to the fact that they produce 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 simplicity of the model – easy-to-use, robust technology, guaranteed supply of biodiesel combined with a pay-as-you-go plan – might help amaze rural Africa, he stated.

“There is a mosaic of sustainable energy choices worldwide. The essential issue is evaluating ideas and techniques in a collaborative style,” stated Sanyal.

“Other cotton ginning factories in the region must attempt and find out from this experiment. Banks ought to start exploring with 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, women’s and LGBT+ rights, human trafficking, home rights and environment modification. Visit http://news.trust.org)