By Nita Bhalla

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

"Who could think it's possible to make a fuel better than diesel from cotton seeds? I didn't!" chuckled 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, walking over to a neighboring tree and plucking a big green pawpaw. "Irrigation with this biodiesel water pump has assisted me get higher yields, especially throughout drought durations."

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

The biodiesel he is utilizing is not just good news for him - it is likewise excellent news for the world.

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

That suggests that along with being cleaner and less expensive than regular fuel, it is more sustainable than other biofuels since no additional land is needed to produce it.

From Brazil to Indonesia, the rush to cultivate biofuel crops has actually driven forest communities off their land and pushed farmers to switch from crops-for-food to more profitable crops-for-fuel - exacerbating food shortages.

"Our biodiesel originates from squashing cotton seeds left over as waste after ginning - the procedure of separating the seeds from raw cotton," stated Taher Zavery, managing director of Zaynagro Industries Ltd, the Kitui-based business 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 a few of their buses - and also to regional farmers for irrigation."

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

DRY RIVER BEDS

Climate modification is taking a toll throughout east Africa and progressively unpredictable weather is ending up being commonplace in nations such as Kenya, Somalia, Uganda and Ethiopia, leading to lower rainfall.

The recurring dry spells are destroying crops and pastures and are starving animals - pressing millions of people in the Horn of Africa to the edge of severe appetite.

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

With almost half Kenya's 47 counties stated to have a serious shortage of rain, humanitarian companies are cautioning of increased cravings in the months ahead.

"Only light rains is anticipated through June ... and this is not anticipated to minimize drought in impacted areas of Kenya and Somalia," said the Famine Early Warning Systems Network in its newest report.

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

In Kitui's Kyuso area, the indications are already obvious.

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

Villagers complain of travelling longer ranges - sometimes more than 10 km (6 miles) with their donkeys laden with empty jerry cans looking for water.

Small-scale farmers, the majority of whom are reliant on rain-fed agriculture, talk about plans 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 little but growing number are shedding their problem of reliance on the weather - and purchasing watering systems powered by Zaynagro's cotton seed biodiesel through a pay-as-you-go scheme introduced more than 3 years back.

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

The farmers make an initial payment, then pay interest-free regular monthly instalments till 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, stated the biodiesel pump enabled him to irrigate a bigger part of his one-acre plot, where he grows a range 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," 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 advantage in helping improve their output.

"The instalment plan is good. Most farmers do not have the cash and can not easily 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 helps us a lot. Our yields are good which indicates we can pay off the cost of the pump gradually in little amounts, and have money left over to pay the school costs."

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

But such biofuel plans are appealing because they produce a circular economy by turning waste to biofuel for profit, stated Sanjoy Sanyal, senior associate for Clean Energy Finance at the World Resources Institute.

The simpleness of the design - easy-to-use, robust technology, guaranteed supply of biodiesel combined with a pay-as-you-go scheme - could help amaze rural Africa, he said.

"There is a mosaic of sustainable energy alternatives worldwide. The essential problem is evaluating concepts and methods in a collective fashion," stated Sanyal.

"Other cotton ginning factories in the area ought to try and gain from this experiment. Financial organizations need to start experimenting with 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, females's and LGBT+ rights, human trafficking, residential or commercial property rights and climate modification. Visit http://news.trust.org)