1 Cotton Waste Biofuel Powers Farmers to Combat Drought In Kenya

Brittney Kingsmill edited this page 2025-01-12 02:52:25 +01:00

By Nita Bhalla

KITUI, Kenya, June 6 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Kenyan farmer Abel Mutie Mathoka believed it should be a joke when he was told he might irrigate his drought-hit crops more inexpensively, easily and efficiently using a pump fuelled by cotton waste.

"Who could think it's possible to make a fuel 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 stated, strolling over to a neighboring tree and plucking a large green pawpaw. "Irrigation with this biodiesel water pump has helped me get higher yields, especially during drought periods."

Mathoka stated his revenues had actually doubled in the two years he has actually been pumping water using biodiesel, which is both more efficient and 20 shillings ($0.20) per litre cheaper than regular diesel.

The he is using is not just good news for him - it is also good news for the world.

Unlike a lot of biofuels, which are derived from crops such as maize, sugarcane, soybean, rapeseed and jatropha, it is made from a by-product of the cotton-making procedure.

That means that along with being cleaner and less expensive than regular fuel, it is more sustainable than other biofuels due to the fact that no extra 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 successful crops-for-fuel - exacerbating food scarcities.

"Our biodiesel originates from crushing cotton seeds left over as waste after ginning - the procedure of separating the seeds from raw cotton," stated Taher Zavery, managing director of Zaynagro Industries Ltd, the Kitui-based company producing the biodiesel.

"We started producing and utilizing 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 watering."

More than 1,200 farmers in Kitui have so far invested in biodiesel pumps for irrigation as part of an initiative launched by Zaynagro in 2015, stated Zavery.

DRY RIVER BEDS

Climate modification is taking a toll across east Africa and significantly erratic weather is becoming commonplace in countries such as Kenya, Somalia, Uganda and Ethiopia, resulting in lower rainfall.

The recurring droughts are damaging crops and pastures and are starving animals - pressing millions of individuals in the Horn of Africa to the edge of severe hunger.

The variety of Kenyans in requirement of food help in March rose by almost 70 percent over a duration of 8 months to 1.1 million, largely 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 firms are warning of increased hunger in the months ahead.

"Only light rainfall is forecast through June ... and this is not expected to reduce drought in impacted areas 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 local food rates are prepared for, which will minimize poor households' access to food."

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

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

Villagers experience travelling 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 are reliant on rain-fed farming, discuss strategies to offer their goats to make ends meet if the harvest is poor.

BATTLING DROUGHT WITH BIODIESEL

But not all Kitui's farmers are stressed.

A small but growing number are shedding their concern of reliance on the weather condition - and buying irrigation systems powered by Zaynagro's cotton seed biodiesel through a pay-as-you-go plan introduced more than three years earlier.

Neighbouring farmers band together to purchase the irrigation system - that includes the biodiesel pump, 12 metres of pipes and 10 litres of biodiesel - at expenses beginning from 32,000 shillings, depending on the size of the pump.

The farmers make an initial payment, then pay interest-free regular monthly instalments till the overall is settled. They purchase the biodiesel to run the pumps from Zaynagro at 80 shillings a litre.

Farmer Alex Babu Kitheka, 39, said the biodiesel pump permitted him to irrigate a larger portion of his one-acre plot, where he grows a range of vegetables including 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 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 scheme as a significant benefit in helping improve their output.

"The instalment scheme is excellent. Most farmers do not have the cash and can not quickly get a loan to purchase 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 good which means we can settle the cost of the pump gradually in percentages, and have money left over to pay the school costs."

Zaynagro's initiative is still in its early phases, with few farmers having paid back the full cost of the pumps.

But such biofuel plans are promising 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 model - user friendly, robust innovation, ensured supply of biodiesel integrated with a pay-as-you-go plan - could assist electrify rural Africa, he said.

"There is a mosaic of sustainable energy choices worldwide. The essential problem is evaluating concepts and techniques in a collective style," said Sanyal.

"Other cotton ginning factories in the area ought to attempt and gain from this experiment. Financial institutions ought to start 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, property rights and environment change. Visit http://news.trust.org)