By Nita Bhalla
KITUI, Kenya, June 6 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Kenyan farmer Abel Mutie Mathoka thought it must be a joke when he was informed he could water his drought-hit crops more cheaply, cleanly and effectively using a pump sustained 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 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, strolling over to a neighboring tree and plucking a large green pawpaw. "Irrigation with this biodiesel water pump has actually helped me get greater yields, particularly throughout dry spell periods."
Mathoka said his profits had actually doubled in the 2 years he has actually been pumping water using biodiesel, which is both more efficient and 20 shillings ($0.20) per litre less expensive than regular diesel.
The biodiesel he is utilizing is not simply excellent news for him - it is also excellent news for the world.
Unlike many biofuels, which are derived from crops such as maize, sugarcane, soybean, rapeseed and jatropha, it is made from a byproduct of the cotton-making process.
That implies that along with being cleaner and cheaper than regular 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 driven forest communities off their land and pushed farmers to change from crops-for-food to more profitable crops-for-fuel - intensifying food lacks.
"Our biodiesel originates from crushing 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 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, offer it to the United Nations to run a few of their buses - and likewise to local farmers for irrigation."
More than 1,200 farmers in Kitui have actually so far purchased biodiesel pumps for irrigation as part of an initiative introduced by Zaynagro in 2015, stated Zavery.
DRY RIVER BEDS
Climate modification is taking a toll across east Africa and increasingly erratic weather is becoming commonplace in nations such as Kenya, Somalia, Uganda and Ethiopia, leading to lower rains.
The repeating droughts are destroying crops and pastures and are starving animals - pushing countless individuals in the Horn of Africa to the verge of severe appetite.
The variety of Kenyans in requirement of food aid in March surged by practically 70 percent over a period of eight months to 1.1 million, mostly due to bad rains, according to government figures.
With almost half Kenya's 47 counties declared to have a serious lack of rain, humanitarian agencies are cautioning of increased hunger in the months ahead.
"Only light rains is anticipated through June ... and this is not anticipated to ease drought in impacted locations of Kenya and Somalia," stated the Famine Early Warning Systems Network in its most current report.
"Well below-average crop production, bad animals body conditions, and increased regional food costs are anticipated, which will lower bad homes' access to food."
In Kitui's Kyuso area, the signs are already evident.
Rivers, water pans and dams are drying up as a result 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 depend on rain-fed farming, go over strategies to sell their goats to make ends meet if the harvest is bad.
BATTLING DROUGHT WITH BIODIESEL
But not all Kitui's farmers are stressed.
A little however growing number are their burden of reliance on the weather - and buying watering systems powered by Zaynagro's cotton seed biodiesel through a pay-as-you-go scheme released more than three years earlier.
Neighbouring farmers unite to purchase the watering system - that includes the biodiesel pump, 12 metres of pipes and 10 litres of biodiesel - at expenses beginning from 32,000 shillings, depending upon the size of the pump.
The farmers make an initial payment, then pay interest-free regular monthly 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 irrigate a bigger portion of his one-acre plot, where he grows a range 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 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 indicate the plan as a significant advantage in helping improve their output.
"The instalment scheme is good. Most farmers don't have the cash and can not quickly get a loan to buy a pump like this," said Maurice Kitheka Munyoki, 41, as he stood beside his blue biodiesel pump.
"Having a plan like this helps us a lot. Our yields are excellent which suggests we can pay off the cost of the pump slowly in little amounts, and have money left over to pay the school costs."
Zaynagro's effort is still in its early stages, with few farmers having paid back the complete cost of the pumps.
But such biofuel plans are promising because they produce a circular economy by turning waste to biofuel for revenue, said Sanjoy Sanyal, senior partner for Clean Energy Finance at the World Resources Institute.
The simpleness of the model - easy-to-use, robust innovation, assured supply of biodiesel integrated with a pay-as-you-go plan - might assist electrify rural Africa, he stated.
"There is a mosaic of sustainable energy choices in the world. The key issue is evaluating ideas and techniques in a collective fashion," said Sanyal.
"Other cotton ginning factories in the region must attempt and discover from this experiment. Financial institutions 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, women's and LGBT+ rights, human trafficking, home rights and environment change. Visit http://news.trust.org)
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Cotton Waste Biofuel Powers Farmers to Combat Drought In Kenya
Albertha Whitington edited this page 2025-01-23 02:00:52 +09:00