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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 thought it must be a joke when he was told he could irrigate his drought-hit crops more cheaply, easily and effectively using a pump fuelled 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 examine 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 big green pawpaw. “Irrigation with this biodiesel water pump has actually helped me get higher yields, especially throughout dry spell durations.”
Mathoka said his earnings had doubled in the two years he has been pumping water using biodiesel, which is both more effective and 20 shillings ($0.20) per litre cheaper than regular diesel.
The biodiesel he is utilizing is not simply excellent news for him – it is also great news for the world.
Unlike many 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 means that in addition to being cleaner and more affordable than routine fuel, it is more sustainable than other biofuels since no additional 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 successful crops-for-fuel – intensifying food shortages.
“Our biodiesel comes from squashing cotton seeds left over as waste after ginning – the process of separating the seeds from raw cotton,” stated Taher Zavery, handling 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 utilize it for our trucks, sell it to the United Nations to run a few of their buses – and also to regional farmers for irrigation.”
More than 1,200 farmers in Kitui have so far invested in for watering as part of an effort released by Zaynagro in 2015, said Zavery.
DRY RIVER BEDS
Climate modification is taking a toll across east Africa and increasingly irregular weather is ending up being commonplace in nations such as Kenya, Somalia, Uganda and Ethiopia, leading to lower rains.
The repeating droughts are ruining crops and pastures and are starving animals – pushing millions of people in the Horn of Africa to the verge of extreme cravings.
The variety of Kenyans in need of food help in March rose by nearly 70 percent over a period of 8 months to 1.1 million, mostly due to bad rains, according to government figures.
With nearly half Kenya’s 47 counties stated to have a major lack of rain, humanitarian firms are cautioning of increased cravings in the months ahead.
“Only light rains is anticipated through June … and this is not anticipated to minimize drought in affected areas of Kenya and Somalia,” stated the Famine Early Warning Systems Network in its newest report.
“Well below-average crop production, poor animals body conditions, and increased regional food costs are anticipated, which will decrease poor households’ access to food.”
In Kitui’s Kyuso area, the signs are already apparent.
Rivers, water pans and dams are drying up as a result of the prolonged drought.
Villagers grumble of trekking longer ranges – sometimes more than 10 km (6 miles) with their donkeys laden with empty jerry cans in search of water.
Small-scale farmers, the majority of whom depend on rain-fed farming, go over 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 fretted.
A little but growing number are shedding their concern of reliance on the weather – and investing in irrigation systems powered by Zaynagro’s cotton seed biodiesel through a pay-as-you-go scheme released more than 3 years earlier.
Neighbouring farmers band together to purchase 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 upon the size of the pump.
The farmers make an initial payment, then pay interest-free regular monthly instalments until the overall is paid off. They purchase 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 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 make 45,000 shillings,” said Alex Babu Kitheka, standing near his plot in Ilangilo town, 40 km (25 miles) from Kitui town.
CIRCULAR ECONOMY
Other farmers point to the plan as a major advantage in helping enhance their output.
“The instalment scheme is excellent. Most farmers don’t have the money and can not quickly get a loan to buy a pump like this,” stated 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 means we can settle the expense of the pump gradually in little amounts, and have money left over to pay the school charges.”
Zaynagro’s initiative is still in its early phases, with few farmers having actually paid back the complete expense of the pumps.
But such biofuel schemes are promising because they produce a circular economy by turning waste to biofuel for profit, stated Sanjoy Sanyal, senior associate for Clean Energy Finance at the World Resources Institute.
The simpleness of the design – user friendly, robust technology, ensured supply of biodiesel combined with a pay-as-you-go scheme – might assist amaze rural Africa, he stated.
“There is a mosaic of sustainable energy options on the planet. The key issue is testing ideas and approaches in a collective fashion,” stated Sanyal.
“Other cotton ginning factories in the area need to attempt and discover from this experiment. Banks ought to begin exploring with 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, home rights and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org)