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 inexpensively, easily and effectively utilizing a pump fuelled by cotton waste.

"Who could believe it's possible to make a fuel better than diesel from cotton seeds? I didn't!" laughed 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, strolling over to a close-by tree and plucking a big green pawpaw. "Irrigation with this biodiesel water pump has helped me get higher yields, particularly during drought durations."

Mathoka said his incomes 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 cheaper than regular diesel.

The biodiesel he is using is not simply excellent news for him - it is also excellent news for the planet.

Unlike the majority of biofuels, which are obtained 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 less expensive than regular fuel, it is more sustainable than other biofuels due to the fact that no additional land is required to produce it.

From Brazil to Indonesia, the rush to cultivate biofuel crops has actually driven forest communities off their land and pressed farmers to change from crops-for-food to more successful crops-for-fuel - worsening food scarcities.

"Our biodiesel comes from crushing 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 company producing the biodiesel.

"We began 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 irrigation."

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

DRY RIVER BEDS

Climate change is taking a toll throughout east Africa and significantly unpredictable weather condition is becoming commonplace in countries such as Kenya, Somalia, Uganda and Ethiopia, resulting in lower rainfall.

The recurring dry spells are destroying crops and pastures and are starving animals - pressing countless individuals in the Horn of Africa to the verge of extreme hunger.

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

With almost half Kenya's 47 counties stated to have a severe lack of rain, humanitarian companies are warning of increased hunger in the months ahead.

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

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

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

Rivers, water pans and dams are drying up as an outcome of the extended dry spell.

Villagers experience trekking longer distances - sometimes more than 10 km (6 miles) with their donkeys packed with empty jerry cans searching for water.

Small-scale farmers, most of whom depend on rain-fed farming, go over 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 worried.

A small but growing number are shedding their problem of reliance on the weather - and investing in watering systems powered by Zaynagro's cotton seed biodiesel through a pay-as-you-go scheme introduced more than 3 years earlier.

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

The farmers make an initial payment, then pay interest-free regular monthly instalments 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 enabled him to irrigate a bigger part 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 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 indicate the plan as a significant advantage in assisting enhance their output.

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

"Having a scheme like this assists us a lot. Our yields are great which indicates we can settle the cost of the pump gradually in percentages, and have cash left over to pay the school costs."

Zaynagro's effort is still in its early stages, with few farmers having repaid the complete expense of the pumps.

But such biofuel schemes are appealing since they create a circular economy by turning waste to biofuel for earnings, stated Sanjoy Sanyal, senior partner for Clean Energy Finance at the World Resources Institute.

The simplicity of the design - user friendly, robust technology, assured supply of biodiesel combined with a pay-as-you-go scheme - might help amaze rural Africa, he stated.

"There is a mosaic of sustainable energy alternatives worldwide. The crucial problem is evaluating ideas and techniques in a collaborative style," stated Sanyal.

"Other cotton ginning factories in the area must try and gain from this experiment. Banks should start try out 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 change. Visit http://news.trust.org)