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 water his drought-hit crops more cheaply, cleanly 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!" 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 said, strolling over to a close-by tree and plucking a big green pawpaw. "Irrigation with this biodiesel water pump has helped me get higher yields, particularly throughout drought periods."
Mathoka said his earnings had actually 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 cheaper than routine diesel.
The biodiesel he is using is not just good news for him - it is likewise good news for the world.
Unlike many biofuels, which are stemmed 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 in addition to 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 driven forest neighborhoods off their land and pressed farmers to change from crops-for-food to more profitable crops-for-fuel - exacerbating food scarcities.
"Our biodiesel originates 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 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 regional farmers for irrigation."
More than 1,200 farmers in Kitui have up until now invested in biodiesel pumps for watering as part of an initiative introduced by Zaynagro in 2015, said 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, leading to lower rains.
The repeating dry spells are destroying crops and pastures and are starving animals - of people in the Horn of Africa to the brink of extreme appetite.
The number of Kenyans in requirement of food aid in March rose by nearly 70 percent over a period of eight months to 1.1 million, largely due to poor rains, according to federal government figures.
With practically half Kenya's 47 counties stated to have a severe scarcity of rain, humanitarian companies 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 impacted areas of Kenya and Somalia," stated the Famine Early Warning Systems Network in its latest report.
"Well below-average crop production, poor animals body conditions, and increased regional food prices are expected, which will decrease poor homes' access to food."
In Kitui's Kyuso location, the signs are already apparent.
Rivers, water pans and dams are drying up as an outcome of the extended dry spell.
Villagers complain of trekking longer distances - often more than 10 km (6 miles) with their donkeys loaded with empty jerry cans looking for water.
Small-scale farmers, most of whom are reliant on rain-fed agriculture, go over plans to offer their goats to make ends meet if the harvest is poor.
BATTLING DROUGHT WITH BIODIESEL
But not all Kitui's farmers are fretted.
A little but growing number are shedding their problem of dependence on the weather condition - and purchasing irrigation systems powered by Zaynagro's cotton seed biodiesel through a pay-as-you-go scheme released more than 3 years earlier.
Neighbouring farmers unite to invest in the irrigation system - that includes 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 an initial payment, then pay interest-free month-to-month instalments up until the total is paid off. 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 water a larger part of his one-acre plot, where he grows a range 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 3 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 scheme as a major advantage in assisting improve their output.
"The instalment scheme is excellent. Most farmers don't have the cash and can not quickly get a loan to buy a pump like this," stated Maurice Kitheka Munyoki, 41, as he stood beside his blue biodiesel pump.
"Having a scheme like this helps us a lot. Our yields are good which suggests we can pay off the expense of the pump slowly in percentages, and have cash left over to pay the school costs."
Zaynagro's effort is still in its early phases, with couple of farmers having repaid the full cost of the pumps.
But such biofuel schemes are appealing since they produce a circular economy by turning waste to biofuel for profit, said Sanjoy Sanyal, senior associate for Clean Energy Finance at the World Resources Institute.
The simplicity of the model - user friendly, robust technology, guaranteed supply of biodiesel combined with a pay-as-you-go plan - could assist energize rural Africa, he stated.
"There is a mosaic of sustainable energy options on the planet. The crucial concern is checking ideas and techniques in a collective style," said Sanyal.
"Other cotton ginning factories in the area ought to attempt and find out from this experiment. Banks must 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, property rights and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org)
1
Cotton Waste Biofuel Powers Farmers to Combat Drought In Kenya
dinac14631659 edited this page 2025-01-11 22:16:24 +01:00