1 Cotton Waste Biofuel Powers Farmers to Combat Drought In Kenya

Octavio Tarczynski edited this page 6 months ago

By Nita Bhalla

KITUI, Kenya, June 6 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Kenyan farmer Abel Mutie Mathoka thought it should be a joke when he was informed he might water his drought-hit crops more inexpensively, easily and effectively utilizing a pump sustained by cotton waste.

"Who could think it's possible to make a fuel 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 stated, strolling over to a close-by tree and plucking a large green pawpaw. "Irrigation with this biodiesel water pump has helped me get higher yields, particularly during dry spell durations."

Mathoka stated his revenues had doubled in the two years he has actually been pumping water using 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 simply excellent news for him - it is also excellent news for the world.

Unlike the majority of biofuels, which are stemmed from crops such as maize, sugarcane, soybean, rapeseed and jatropha curcas, it is made from a byproduct of the cotton-making procedure.

That suggests that along with being cleaner and less expensive than routine fuel, it is more sustainable than other biofuels since no extra land is needed to produce it.

From Brazil to Indonesia, the rush to cultivate biofuel crops has actually driven forest communities off their land and pressed farmers to change from crops-for-food to more profitable crops-for-fuel - exacerbating 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, handling director of Zaynagro Industries Ltd, the Kitui-based business producing the biodiesel.

"We started producing and using it to power our cotton ginning factory in 2011. With increased production, we now utilize 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 bought biodiesel pumps for irrigation as part of an effort released by Zaynagro in 2015, stated Zavery.

DRY RIVER BEDS

Climate modification is taking a toll across east Africa and increasingly unpredictable weather is ending up being commonplace in nations such as Kenya, Somalia, Uganda and Ethiopia, leading to lower rainfall.

The repeating droughts are damaging crops and pastures and are starving animals - pressing millions of individuals in the Horn of Africa to the verge of severe appetite.

The variety of Kenyans in need of food help in March rose by nearly 70 percent over a duration of 8 months to 1.1 million, mainly due to bad rains, according to government figures.

With nearly half Kenya's 47 counties stated to have a major scarcity of rain, humanitarian agencies are warning of increased cravings in the months ahead.

"Only light rainfall is anticipated through June ... and this is not expected to reduce drought in impacted areas of Kenya and Somalia," said the Famine Early Warning Systems Network in its newest report.

"Well below-average crop production, bad animals body conditions, and increased regional food rates are expected, which will decrease poor families' access to food."

In Kitui's Kyuso location, the indications are already evident.

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

Villagers experience trekking longer distances - sometimes more than 10 km (6 miles) with their donkeys laden with empty jerry cans looking for water.

Small-scale farmers, the majority of whom depend on rain-fed farming, go over strategies to sell their goats to make ends satisfy if the harvest is poor.

BATTLING DROUGHT WITH BIODIESEL

But not all Kitui's farmers are fretted.

A little however growing number are shedding their problem of reliance on the weather - and investing in irrigation systems powered by Zaynagro's cotton seed biodiesel through a pay-as-you-go plan introduced more than 3 years ago.

Neighbouring farmers band together to invest in the watering system - which consists of the biodiesel pump, 12 metres of pipes and 10 litres of biodiesel - at costs beginning from 32,000 shillings, depending upon the size of the pump.

The farmers make an initial payment, then pay interest-free monthly instalments until the total 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 enabled him to water a bigger part of his one-acre plot, where he grows a range of vegetables 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 make 45,000 shillings," stated Alex Babu Kitheka, standing near his plot in Ilangilo town, 40 km (25 miles) from Kitui town.

CIRCULAR ECONOMY

Other farmers indicate the scheme as a significant advantage in helping enhance their output.

"The instalment scheme is great. Most farmers do not 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 scheme like this helps us a lot. Our yields are good which means we can settle the expense of the pump slowly in percentages, and have cash left over to pay the school charges."

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

But such biofuel plans are promising due to the fact that they create a circular economy by turning waste to biofuel for profit, stated Sanjoy Sanyal, senior partner for Clean Energy Finance at the World Resources Institute.

The simplicity of the model - user friendly, robust innovation, guaranteed supply of biodiesel combined with a - could assist energize rural Africa, he stated.

"There is a mosaic of sustainable energy alternatives in the world. The key problem is testing ideas and techniques in a collaborative style," said Sanyal.

"Other cotton ginning factories in the region should try and gain from this experiment. Banks must start experimenting with loans to groups of farmers. International donors and investors 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, residential or commercial property rights and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org)