1 Cotton Waste Biofuel Powers Farmers to Fight Drought In Kenya

Demetria Dehaven edited this page 2025-01-16 18:16:50 +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 told he could irrigate his drought-hit crops more inexpensively, cleanly and effectively using a pump sustained by cotton waste.

"Who could believe it's possible to make a fuel much better than diesel from cotton seeds? I didn't!" chuckled Mathoka, crouching 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 nearby tree and plucking a large green pawpaw. "Irrigation with this biodiesel water pump has assisted me get greater yields, particularly during drought durations."

Mathoka stated his revenues had doubled in the 2 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 using is not just great news for him - it is likewise great news for the planet.

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 as well as being cleaner and more affordable than routine fuel, it is more sustainable than other biofuels because no additional land is needed 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 profitable crops-for-fuel - worsening food .

"Our biodiesel comes from squashing 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 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 some of their buses - and also to local farmers for watering."

More than 1,200 farmers in Kitui have up until now bought 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 increasingly irregular weather condition is becoming commonplace in countries such as Kenya, Somalia, Uganda and Ethiopia, leading to lower rains.

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

The variety of Kenyans in need of food aid in March surged by nearly 70 percent over a period of eight months to 1.1 million, mostly due to bad rains, according to federal government figures.

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

"Only light rains is forecast through June ... and this is not anticipated to reduce dry spell in affected areas of Kenya and Somalia," said the Famine Early Warning Systems Network in its most current report.

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

In Kitui's Kyuso area, the signs are already obvious.

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

Villagers suffer trekking longer ranges - often 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 are dependent on rain-fed farming, discuss strategies to offer their goats to make ends fulfill 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 burden of reliance on the weather condition - and buying watering systems powered by Zaynagro's cotton seed biodiesel through a pay-as-you-go scheme introduced more than 3 years earlier.

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

The farmers make a preliminary payment, then pay interest-free monthly instalments until the total 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 irrigate a bigger portion of his one-acre plot, where he grows a variety 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 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 indicate the plan as a major advantage in assisting enhance their output.

"The instalment scheme is good. Most farmers don't have the money and can not easily get a loan to buy a pump like this," said Maurice Kitheka Munyoki, 41, as he stood beside his blue biodiesel pump.

"Having a scheme like this helps us a lot. Our yields are good which implies we can settle the cost of the pump slowly in percentages, and have money left over to pay the school fees."

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

But such biofuel plans are appealing since 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, guaranteed supply of biodiesel integrated with a pay-as-you-go scheme - might assist electrify rural Africa, he said.

"There is a mosaic of sustainable energy choices worldwide. The crucial concern is testing ideas and techniques in a collective style," said Sanyal.

"Other cotton ginning factories in the area must attempt and discover from this experiment. Financial organizations should start explore 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 environment modification. Visit http://news.trust.org)