By Nita Bhalla
KITUI, Kenya, June 6 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Kenyan farmer Abel Mutie thought it must be a joke when he was told he could water his drought-hit crops more cheaply, easily and efficiently utilizing a pump sustained 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 inspect 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 close-by tree and plucking a large green pawpaw. "Irrigation with this biodiesel water pump has helped me get greater yields, specifically throughout drought durations."
Mathoka said his revenues had actually 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 cheaper than regular diesel.
The biodiesel he is using is not just excellent news for him - it is likewise excellent 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 implies that in addition to being cleaner and cheaper than routine fuel, it is more sustainable than other biofuels because no additional land is required to produce it.
From Brazil to Indonesia, the rush to cultivate biofuel crops has driven forest communities off their land and pushed farmers to switch from crops-for-food to more lucrative crops-for-fuel - worsening food shortages.
"Our biodiesel comes from crushing cotton seeds left over as waste after ginning - the process of separating the seeds from raw cotton," said 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 use it for our trucks, sell it to the United Nations to run some of their buses - and also to regional farmers for watering."
More than 1,200 farmers in Kitui have actually so far invested in biodiesel pumps for irrigation as part of an effort launched by Zaynagro in 2015, said Zavery.
DRY RIVER BEDS
Climate modification is taking a toll across east Africa and progressively unpredictable weather is becoming commonplace in countries such as Kenya, Somalia, Uganda and Ethiopia, resulting in lower rains.
The repeating droughts are damaging crops and pastures and are starving animals - pushing millions of people in the Horn of Africa to the brink of extreme hunger.
The variety of Kenyans in requirement of food help in March surged by nearly 70 percent over a period of 8 months to 1.1 million, mainly due to poor rains, according to government figures.
With nearly half Kenya's 47 counties declared to have a major shortage of rain, humanitarian companies are warning of increased cravings in the months ahead.
"Only light rains is forecast through June ... and this is not expected to ease dry spell in affected locations of Kenya and Somalia," said the Famine Early Warning Systems Network in its latest report.
"Well below-average crop production, bad livestock body conditions, and increased local food costs are prepared for, which will decrease poor homes' access to food."
In Kitui's Kyuso area, the indications are currently evident.
Rivers, water pans and dams are drying up as a result of the prolonged dry spell.
Villagers suffer travelling longer distances - sometimes more than 10 km (6 miles) with their donkeys packed with empty jerry cans searching for water.
Small-scale farmers, the majority of whom depend on rain-fed farming, discuss 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 stressed.
A small however growing number are shedding their problem of reliance on the weather - and purchasing irrigation systems powered by Zaynagro's cotton seed biodiesel through a pay-as-you-go scheme released more than 3 years back.
Neighbouring farmers band together to invest in the watering system - that includes the biodiesel pump, 12 metres of pipes and 10 litres of biodiesel - at costs starting from 32,000 shillings, depending on the size of the pump.
The farmers make an initial payment, then pay interest-free monthly instalments up until the total is settled. They buy the biodiesel to run the pumps from Zaynagro at 80 shillings a litre.
Farmer Alex Babu Kitheka, 39, stated the biodiesel pump enabled him to irrigate a larger part of his one-acre plot, where he grows a range of vegetables 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 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 major benefit in assisting enhance their output.
"The instalment plan is excellent. Most farmers do not have the money and can not easily get a loan to purchase 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 excellent which suggests we can settle the expense of the pump slowly in little quantities, and have cash left over to pay the school charges."
Zaynagro's initiative is still in its early stages, with few farmers having actually paid back the full expense of the pumps.
But such biofuel schemes are appealing since they create a circular economy by turning waste to biofuel for revenue, stated Sanjoy Sanyal, senior associate for Clean Energy Finance at the World Resources Institute.
The simplicity of the model - easy-to-use, robust innovation, guaranteed supply of biodiesel integrated with a pay-as-you-go scheme - might assist energize rural Africa, he stated.
"There is a mosaic of sustainable energy choices in the world. The crucial issue is checking concepts and approaches in a collective style," said Sanyal.
"Other cotton ginning factories in the area should attempt and discover from this experiment. Financial organizations must start experimenting with loans to groups of farmers. International donors and investors 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, residential or commercial property rights and climate modification. Visit http://news.trust.org)
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Cotton Waste Biofuel Powers Farmers to Fight Drought In Kenya
ronmedeiros231 edited this page 2025-01-12 08:19:27 +08:00