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Cotton Waste Biofuel Powers Farmers to Fight Drought In Kenya

Swen Dacomb edited this page 2025-01-12 06:18:35 +08:00

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 might irrigate his drought-hit crops more cheaply, 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 check 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 greater yields, especially during dry spell periods."

Mathoka stated his incomes 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 more affordable than routine diesel.

The biodiesel he is utilizing is not simply great news for him - it is also good news for the world.

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

That implies that along with 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 pushed farmers to change from crops-for-food to more - exacerbating food lacks.

"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, managing 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 use it for our trucks, offer it to the United Nations to run a few of their buses - and also to regional farmers for watering."

More than 1,200 farmers in Kitui have actually so far purchased biodiesel pumps for irrigation as part of an effort introduced by Zaynagro in 2015, stated Zavery.

DRY RIVER BEDS

Climate change is taking a toll across east Africa and increasingly irregular weather is becoming commonplace in nations such as Kenya, Somalia, Uganda and Ethiopia, resulting in lower rainfall.

The repeating dry spells are destroying crops and pastures and are starving animals - pressing countless people in the Horn of Africa to the brink of severe cravings.

The number of Kenyans in requirement of food help in March rose by nearly 70 percent over a duration of eight months to 1.1 million, mostly due to poor rains, according to government figures.

With almost half Kenya's 47 counties stated to have a serious scarcity of rain, humanitarian companies are cautioning of increased appetite in the months ahead.

"Only light rainfall is forecast through June ... and this is not anticipated to ease dry spell in impacted areas of Kenya and Somalia," said the Famine Early Warning Systems Network in its latest report.

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

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

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

Villagers suffer travelling longer ranges - sometimes more than 10 km (6 miles) with their donkeys loaded with empty jerry cans searching for water.

Small-scale farmers, most of whom depend on rain-fed farming, talk about 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 worried.

A small but growing number are shedding their burden of dependence on the weather condition - and investing in watering systems powered by Zaynagro's cotton seed biodiesel through a pay-as-you-go scheme introduced more than three years earlier.

Neighbouring farmers unite to purchase the irrigation system - which includes the biodiesel pump, 12 metres of pipelines and 10 litres of biodiesel - at expenses beginning with 32,000 shillings, depending on the size of the pump.

The farmers make a preliminary payment, then pay interest-free regular monthly instalments till 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 allowed him to water 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 three months. With the biodiesel pump, I can make 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 plan as a significant benefit in helping enhance their output.

"The instalment plan is good. Most farmers do not have the cash and can not quickly get a loan to buy a pump like this," stated Maurice Kitheka Munyoki, 41, as he stood beside 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 gradually in percentages, and have money left over to pay the school charges."

Zaynagro's effort is still in its early stages, with couple of farmers having repaid the full cost of the pumps.

But such biofuel schemes are promising due to the fact that 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 design - user friendly, robust innovation, ensured supply of biodiesel combined with a pay-as-you-go plan - might assist energize rural Africa, he stated.

"There is a mosaic of sustainable energy options in the world. The crucial concern is testing ideas and techniques in a collective fashion," said Sanyal.

"Other cotton ginning factories in the region should attempt and find out from this experiment. Banks need to start experimenting with loans to groups of farmers. International donors and financiers 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, females's and LGBT+ rights, human trafficking, property rights and climate modification. Visit http://news.trust.org)