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 thought it must be a joke when he was told he might irrigate his drought-hit crops more cheaply, easily and effectively using 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, 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 said, walking over to a close-by tree and plucking a big green pawpaw. “Irrigation with this biodiesel water pump has actually assisted me get greater yields, especially throughout drought periods.”

Mathoka said his earnings had doubled in the two years he has actually been pumping water utilizing biodiesel, which is both more effective and 20 shillings ($0.20) per litre less expensive than regular diesel.

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

Unlike the majority of 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 process.

That indicates that along with being cleaner and more affordable than regular fuel, it is more sustainable than other biofuels since no additional land is required to 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 profitable crops-for-fuel – worsening food lacks.

“Our biodiesel comes 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 company producing the biodiesel.

“We began producing and utilizing 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 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 initiative introduced by Zaynagro in 2015, stated Zavery.

DRY RIVER BEDS

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

The recurring dry spells are ruining crops and pastures and are starving animals – pressing millions of individuals in the Horn of Africa to the verge of extreme cravings.

The variety of Kenyans in need of food aid in March rose by nearly 70 percent over a duration of eight months to 1.1 million, mostly due to poor rains, according to federal government figures.

With nearly half Kenya’s 47 counties stated to have a major scarcity of rain, humanitarian firms are alerting of increased hunger in the months ahead.

“Only light rains is forecast through June … and this is not expected to reduce dry spell in affected locations of Kenya and Somalia,” said the Famine Early Warning Systems Network in its most current report.

“Well below-average crop production, bad livestock body conditions, and increased regional food prices are expected, which will reduce bad families’ access to food.”

In Kitui’s Kyuso area, the signs 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 looking for water.

Small-scale farmers, many of whom are reliant on rain-fed farming, discuss strategies to sell their goats to make ends fulfill if the harvest is bad.

BATTLING DROUGHT WITH BIODIESEL

But not all Kitui’s farmers are worried.

A small however growing number are shedding their burden of dependence on the weather condition – and buying irrigation systems powered by Zaynagro’s cotton seed biodiesel through a pay-as-you-go plan launched more than 3 years back.

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

The farmers make a preliminary payment, then pay interest-free month-to-month instalments till the total is paid off. They purchase 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 veggies 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 earn 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 scheme as a major advantage in helping enhance their output.

“The instalment scheme is good. 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 scheme like this assists us a lot. Our yields are great which implies we can pay off the expense of the pump gradually 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 repaid the full cost of the pumps.

But such biofuel plans are promising 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, ensured supply of biodiesel combined with a pay-as-you-go scheme – might help electrify rural Africa, he said.

“There is a mosaic of sustainable energy choices in the world. The key concern is evaluating concepts and approaches in a collaborative fashion,” stated Sanyal.

“Other cotton ginning factories in the region should try and learn from this experiment. Financial institutions ought to begin try out loans to groups of farmers. International donors and financiers 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, property rights and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org)