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 informed he could 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 examine the watermelons on his 10-acre (four-hectare) shared plot in Ituri village in Kenya's southeast Kitui county.

"But it works," he said, walking over to a close-by tree and plucking a large green pawpaw. "Irrigation with this biodiesel water pump has helped me get higher yields, specifically throughout dry spell durations."

Mathoka stated his earnings had doubled in the two years he has actually been pumping water using biodiesel, which is both more efficient and 20 shillings ($0.20) per litre more affordable than regular diesel.

The biodiesel he is using is not just great news for him - it is likewise excellent news for the planet.

Unlike the 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 procedure.

That indicates that as well as being cleaner and more affordable than routine fuel, it is more sustainable than other biofuels since no extra 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 pressed farmers to change from crops-for-food to more successful crops-for-fuel - exacerbating food shortages.

"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 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 bought biodiesel pumps for watering as part of an initiative released by Zaynagro in 2015, said Zavery.

DRY RIVER BEDS

Climate modification is taking a toll across east Africa and increasingly erratic weather condition is ending up being commonplace in nations such as Kenya, Somalia, Uganda and Ethiopia, leading to lower rains.

The recurring droughts are ruining crops and pastures and are starving animals - pushing millions of individuals in the Horn of Africa to the verge of extreme appetite.

The number of Kenyans in requirement of food help in March rose by nearly 70 percent over a duration of 8 months to 1.1 million, largely due to bad rains, according to government figures.

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

"Only light rainfall 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, bad animals body conditions, and increased local food costs are expected, which will minimize poor homes' access to food."

In Kitui's Kyuso location, the indications are currently apparent.

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

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

Small-scale farmers, the majority of whom are reliant on rain-fed agriculture, go over plans to sell their goats to make ends fulfill if the harvest is poor.

BATTLING DROUGHT WITH BIODIESEL

But not all Kitui's farmers are worried.

A little however growing number are shedding their concern of reliance on the weather - and buying watering systems powered by Zaynagro's cotton seed biodiesel through a pay-as-you-go scheme released more than 3 years back.

Neighbouring farmers unite to purchase the irrigation system - which includes the biodiesel pump, 12 metres of pipelines and 10 litres of biodiesel - at expenses beginning with 32,000 shillings, depending upon the size of the pump.

The farmers make a preliminary payment, then pay interest-free month-to-month 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 irrigate a larger part 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 point to the plan as a significant benefit in helping enhance their output.

"The instalment scheme is excellent. Most farmers do not have the cash and can not quickly get a loan to purchase a pump like this," stated Maurice Kitheka Munyoki, 41, as he stood next to his blue biodiesel pump.

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

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

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

The simpleness of the design - user friendly, robust innovation, guaranteed supply of biodiesel integrated with a pay-as-you-go scheme - could help amaze rural Africa, he said.

"There is a mosaic of sustainable energy alternatives in the world. The essential concern is testing concepts and approaches in a collaborative style," stated Sanyal.

"Other cotton ginning factories in the region should attempt and gain from this experiment. Banks need to begin 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, residential or commercial property rights and climate modification. Visit http://news.trust.org)