By Nita Bhalla
KITUI, Kenya, June 6 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Kenyan farmer Abel Mutie Mathoka thought it needs to be a joke when he was informed he could irrigate his drought-hit crops more cheaply, cleanly and efficiently using 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 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 close-by tree and plucking a large green pawpaw. "Irrigation with this biodiesel water pump has actually assisted me get higher yields, specifically during dry spell durations."
Mathoka stated his profits had doubled in the 2 years he has actually been pumping water utilizing biodiesel, which is both more efficient and 20 shillings ($0.20) per litre less expensive than regular diesel.
The biodiesel he is using is not simply excellent news for him - it is also great news for the planet.
Unlike a lot of biofuels, which are obtained from crops such as maize, sugarcane, soybean, rapeseed and jatropha, it is made from a by-product of the cotton-making procedure.
That implies that in addition to being cleaner and cheaper than routine fuel, it is more sustainable than other biofuels due to the fact that no additional 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 pushed farmers to change from crops-for-food to more successful crops-for-fuel - intensifying 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, managing 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 use it for our trucks, sell it to the United Nations to run some of their buses - and likewise to regional farmers for watering."
More than 1,200 farmers in Kitui have actually up until now purchased biodiesel pumps for watering as part of an initiative introduced by Zaynagro in 2015, stated Zavery.
DRY RIVER BEDS
Climate change is taking a toll across east Africa and significantly irregular weather is ending up being commonplace in nations such as Kenya, Somalia, Uganda and Ethiopia, resulting in lower rains.
The recurring droughts are destroying crops and pastures and are starving animals - pushing countless people in the Horn of Africa to the brink of severe hunger.
The variety of Kenyans in need of food aid in March rose by nearly 70 percent over a duration of 8 months to 1.1 million, mainly due to poor rains, according to government figures.
With nearly half Kenya's 47 counties stated to have a severe shortage of rain, humanitarian companies are alerting of increased hunger in the months ahead.
"Only light rainfall is forecast through June ... and this is not expected to relieve drought in affected areas of Kenya and Somalia," said the Famine Early Warning Systems Network in its latest report.
"Well below-average crop production, poor animals body conditions, and increased local food costs are anticipated, which will decrease bad homes' access to food."
In Kitui's Kyuso location, the indications are currently evident.
Rivers, water pans and dams are drying up as an outcome of the extended dry spell.
Villagers grumble of travelling longer distances - often more than 10 km (6 miles) with their donkeys packed with empty jerry cans looking for water.
Small-scale farmers, the majority of whom are dependent on rain-fed farming, discuss plans to sell their goats to make ends meet if the harvest is bad.
BATTLING DROUGHT WITH BIODIESEL
But not all Kitui's farmers are stressed.
A small but growing number are shedding their burden of dependence on the weather - 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 unite to invest in the system - that includes the biodiesel pump, 12 metres of pipelines and 10 litres of biodiesel - at costs beginning with 32,000 shillings, depending upon the size of the pump.
The farmers make an initial payment, then pay interest-free 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 permitted him to water a larger portion of his one-acre plot, where he grows a variety 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 three 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 point to the scheme as a major benefit in helping improve their output.
"The instalment scheme is good. Most farmers do not have the cash and can not quickly get a loan to purchase a pump like this," stated Maurice Kitheka Munyoki, 41, as he stood beside his blue biodiesel pump.
"Having a plan like this assists us a lot. Our yields are good which means we can settle the cost of the pump slowly in percentages, and have cash left over to pay the school costs."
Zaynagro's initiative is still in its early stages, with few farmers having repaid the full cost of the pumps.
But such biofuel schemes are appealing because they develop a circular economy by turning waste to biofuel for revenue, said Sanjoy Sanyal, senior partner for Clean Energy Finance at the World Resources Institute.
The simplicity of the model - easy-to-use, robust innovation, assured supply of biodiesel combined with a pay-as-you-go scheme - might help amaze rural Africa, he said.
"There is a mosaic of sustainable energy options in the world. The essential issue is checking ideas and techniques in a collective fashion," said Sanyal.
"Other cotton ginning factories in the region should try and gain from this experiment. Banks need to begin 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, property rights and environment modification. Visit http://news.trust.org)
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Cotton Waste Biofuel Powers Farmers to Combat Drought In Kenya
Lou Avelar edited this page 2025-01-11 16:37:55 +01:00