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By Nita Bhalla

KITUI, Kenya, June 6 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Kenyan farmer Abel Mutie Mathoka believed it should 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 think it's possible to make a fuel better than diesel from cotton seeds? I didn't!" laughed Mathoka, bending down to examine 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 actually helped me get greater yields, especially during drought durations."

Mathoka said 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 simply good news for him - it is likewise good news for the world.

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

That means that along with being cleaner and cheaper than regular fuel, it is more sustainable than other biofuels since no additional 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 pushed farmers to change from crops-for-food to more successful crops-for-fuel - worsening food lacks.

"Our biodiesel originates 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 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 a few of their buses - and also to regional farmers for irrigation."

More than 1,200 farmers in Kitui have up until now invested in biodiesel pumps for irrigation as part of an initiative introduced by Zaynagro in 2015, stated Zavery.

DRY RIVER BEDS

Climate modification is taking a toll throughout east Africa and increasingly erratic weather is becoming commonplace in countries such as Kenya, Somalia, Uganda and Ethiopia, leading to lower rains.

The repeating droughts are damaging crops and pastures and are starving animals - pressing millions of people in the Horn of Africa to the edge of extreme appetite.

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

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

"Only light rainfall is anticipated through June ... and this is not expected to minimize dry spell in affected areas of Kenya and Somalia," stated the Famine Early Warning Systems Network in its newest report.

"Well below-average crop production, bad livestock body conditions, and increased regional food prices are prepared for, which will lower bad households' access to food."

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

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

Villagers experience travelling longer ranges - often more than 10 km (6 miles) with their donkeys laden with empty jerry cans in search of water.

Small-scale farmers, many of whom depend on rain-fed agriculture, go over plans to offer their goats to make ends satisfy if the harvest is poor.

BATTLING DROUGHT WITH BIODIESEL

But not all Kitui's farmers are fretted.

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

Neighbouring farmers band together to invest in the irrigation system - that 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 an initial payment, then pay interest-free monthly instalments up until 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, said the biodiesel pump enabled him to water a bigger part of his one-acre plot, where he grows a variety 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 3 months. With the biodiesel pump, I can earn 45,000 shillings," stated Alex Babu Kitheka, standing near his plot in Ilangilo town, 40 km (25 miles) from Kitui town.

CIRCULAR ECONOMY

Other farmers point to the scheme as a significant advantage in helping enhance their output.

"The instalment scheme 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 next to his blue biodiesel pump.

"Having a scheme like this helps us a lot. Our yields are good which indicates we can settle the expense 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 couple of farmers having paid back the complete expense of the pumps.

But such biofuel schemes are appealing since they produce a circular economy by turning waste to biofuel for revenue, said Sanjoy Sanyal, senior associate for Clean Energy Finance at the World Resources Institute.

The simpleness of the design - easy-to-use, robust innovation, ensured supply of biodiesel integrated with a pay-as-you-go plan - could help energize rural Africa, he said.

"There is a mosaic of sustainable energy choices worldwide. The key problem is testing concepts and methods in a collaborative fashion," stated Sanyal.

"Other cotton ginning factories in the region ought to attempt and gain from this experiment. Banks ought to start explore 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, women's and LGBT+ rights, human trafficking, residential or commercial property rights and climate modification. Visit http://news.trust.org)