By Nita Bhalla

KITUI, Kenya, June 6 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Kenyan farmer Abel Mutie Mathoka believed it needs to be a joke when he was told he might irrigate his drought-hit crops more cheaply, easily and effectively using a pump fuelled by cotton waste.

"Who could think it's possible to make a fuel much better than diesel from cotton seeds? I didn't!" laughed 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 said, strolling over to a nearby tree and plucking a large green pawpaw. "Irrigation with this biodiesel water pump has actually helped me get higher yields, particularly throughout drought periods."

Mathoka said his profits had doubled in the 2 years he has actually been pumping water using biodiesel, which is both more effective and 20 shillings ($0.20) per litre less expensive than regular diesel.

The biodiesel he is utilizing is not simply great news for him - it is likewise great news for the planet.

Unlike the majority of biofuels, which are stemmed from crops such as maize, sugarcane, soybean, rapeseed and jatropha curcas, it is made from a by-product of the cotton-making procedure.

That implies that in addition to being cleaner and more affordable than regular fuel, it is more sustainable than other biofuels due to the fact that no additional land is needed to produce it.

From Brazil to Indonesia, the rush to cultivate biofuel crops has driven forest neighborhoods off their land and pressed farmers to change 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 procedure of separating the seeds from raw cotton," stated Taher Zavery, handling director of Zaynagro Industries Ltd, the Kitui-based business producing the biodiesel.

"We began producing and utilizing 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 local farmers for irrigation."

More than 1,200 farmers in Kitui have so far invested in biodiesel pumps for watering as part of an initiative launched by Zaynagro in 2015, stated Zavery.

DRY RIVER BEDS

Climate modification is taking a toll throughout east Africa and increasingly irregular weather condition is ending up being commonplace in countries such as Kenya, Somalia, Uganda and Ethiopia, resulting in lower rainfall.

The repeating dry spells are damaging crops and pastures and are starving animals - pressing countless individuals in the Horn of Africa to the verge of severe hunger.

The variety of Kenyans in need of food help in March surged by almost 70 percent over a duration of 8 months to 1.1 million, mostly due to poor rains, according to government figures.

With nearly half Kenya's 47 counties declared to have a major lack of rain, humanitarian agencies are cautioning of increased hunger in the months ahead.

"Only light rainfall is forecast through June ... and this is not anticipated to reduce dry spell in impacted locations of Kenya and Somalia," stated the Famine Early Warning Systems Network in its most current report.

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

In Kitui's Kyuso location, the signs are currently evident.

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

Villagers suffer trekking longer distances - in some cases more than 10 km (6 miles) with their donkeys laden with empty jerry cans searching for water.

Small-scale farmers, the majority of whom are dependent on rain-fed farming, go over strategies to offer their goats to make ends satisfy if the harvest is bad.

BATTLING DROUGHT WITH BIODIESEL

But not all Kitui's farmers are fretted.

A little however 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 launched more than three years back.

Neighbouring farmers unite to purchase the watering system - which consists of the biodiesel pump, 12 metres of pipes and 10 litres of biodiesel - at expenses beginning from 32,000 shillings, depending upon the size of the pump.

The farmers make an initial payment, then monthly instalments till the overall 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 permitted him to irrigate a bigger part of his one-acre plot, where he grows a variety of veggies consisting of 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 earn 45,000 shillings," stated 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 improve their output.

"The instalment scheme is good. Most farmers don't have the cash and can not quickly 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 helps us a lot. Our yields are great which indicates we can pay off the expense of the pump slowly in small quantities, and have cash left over to pay the school fees."

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

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

The simpleness of the design - user friendly, robust technology, assured 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 alternatives worldwide. The essential problem is evaluating ideas and approaches in a collaborative style," stated Sanyal.

"Other cotton ginning factories in the area must attempt and gain from this experiment. Financial institutions must begin 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, residential or commercial property rights and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org)