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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 should be a joke when he was informed he might irrigate his drought-hit crops more cheaply, easily and efficiently using a pump fuelled by cotton waste.

“Who could believe it’s possible to make a fuel much better than diesel from cotton seeds? I didn’t!” laughed Mathoka, bending down to examine the watermelons on his 10-acre (four-hectare) shared plot in Ituri town 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 actually helped me get higher yields, particularly throughout dry spell durations.”

Mathoka stated his revenues 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 routine diesel.

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

Unlike a lot of biofuels, which are obtained from crops such as maize, sugarcane, soybean, rapeseed and jatropha, it is made from a byproduct of the cotton-making process.

That suggests that as well as being cleaner and cheaper than regular fuel, it is more sustainable than other biofuels due to the fact that no additional 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 pressed farmers to change from crops-for-food to more profitable crops-for-fuel food shortages.

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

“We started producing and utilizing it to power our cotton ginning factory in 2011. With increased production, we now use 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 up until now invested in biodiesel pumps for watering as part of an initiative launched by Zaynagro in 2015, stated Zavery.

DRY RIVER BEDS

Climate change is taking a toll throughout east Africa and increasingly unpredictable weather is becoming commonplace in countries such as Kenya, Somalia, Uganda and Ethiopia, resulting in lower rains.

The repeating dry spells are destroying crops and pastures and are starving animals – pushing millions of individuals in the Horn of Africa to the verge of extreme appetite.

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

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

“Only light rainfall is forecast through June … and this is not expected to ease dry spell in impacted locations 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 local food prices are prepared for, which will minimize bad families’ access to food.”

In Kitui’s Kyuso location, the signs are currently evident.

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

Villagers suffer trekking longer distances – sometimes more than 10 km (6 miles) with their donkeys loaded with empty jerry cans in search of water.

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

BATTLING DROUGHT WITH BIODIESEL

But not all Kitui’s farmers are worried.

A small however growing number are shedding their problem of dependence on the weather – and buying watering systems powered by Zaynagro’s cotton seed biodiesel through a pay-as-you-go scheme introduced more than 3 years earlier.

Neighbouring farmers band together to invest in the watering system – which includes the biodiesel pump, 12 metres of pipelines and 10 litres of biodiesel – at expenses beginning from 32,000 shillings, depending upon the size of the pump.

The farmers make a preliminary payment, then pay interest-free regular monthly instalments up until the overall is paid off. They buy the biodiesel to run the pumps from Zaynagro at 80 shillings a litre.

Farmer Alex Babu Kitheka, 39, stated the biodiesel pump permitted him to irrigate 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 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 benefit in assisting enhance their output.

“The instalment plan is excellent. Most farmers don’t have the money and can not easily get a loan to purchase 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 implies we can settle the expense of the pump slowly in percentages, and have cash left over to pay the school charges.”

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

But such biofuel schemes are appealing due to the fact that they develop a circular economy by turning waste to biofuel for earnings, said Sanjoy Sanyal, senior partner for Clean Energy Finance at the World Resources Institute.

The simplicity of the design – easy-to-use, robust innovation, assured supply of biodiesel combined with a pay-as-you-go plan – might help electrify rural Africa, he said.

“There is a mosaic of sustainable energy options on the planet. The crucial issue is checking concepts and methods in a collective fashion,” said Sanyal.

“Other cotton ginning factories in the area should attempt and gain from this experiment. Financial organizations ought to start try out loans to groups of farmers. International donors and investors 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, females’s and LGBT+ rights, human trafficking, home rights and environment modification. Visit http://news.trust.org)

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