By Nita Bhalla

KITUI, Kenya, June 6 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Kenyan farmer Abel Mutie Mathoka believed it should be a joke when he was told he might irrigate his drought-hit crops more inexpensively, cleanly and efficiently utilizing 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!" chuckled 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, walking over to a close-by tree and plucking a large green pawpaw. "Irrigation with this biodiesel water pump has actually helped me get higher yields, specifically during dry spell periods."

Mathoka stated his incomes 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 cheaper than routine 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 indicates that in addition to being cleaner and cheaper than routine 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 driven forest communities off their land and pressed farmers to switch 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 procedure 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 a few of their buses - and also to local farmers for watering."

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

DRY RIVER BEDS

Climate change is taking a toll throughout east Africa and progressively erratic weather is ending up being commonplace in countries such as Kenya, Somalia, Uganda and Ethiopia, resulting in lower rains.

The recurring dry spells are destroying crops and pastures and are starving animals - pushing countless people in the Horn of Africa to the brink of severe appetite.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Villagers experience travelling longer ranges - in some cases more than 10 km (6 miles) with their donkeys packed with empty jerry cans looking for water.

Small-scale farmers, many of whom depend on rain-fed farming, discuss strategies to sell their goats to make ends satisfy if the harvest is bad.

BATTLING DROUGHT WITH BIODIESEL

But not all Kitui's farmers are fretted.

A small but growing number are shedding their burden of dependence on the weather condition - and buying irrigation systems powered by Zaynagro's cotton seed biodiesel through a pay-as-you-go scheme introduced more than 3 years back.

Neighbouring farmers band together to invest in the watering system - which consists of the biodiesel pump, 12 metres of pipes and 10 litres of biodiesel - at costs beginning from 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 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 larger portion 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 3 months. With the biodiesel pump, I can make 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 indicate the scheme as a significant advantage in helping improve their output.

"The instalment scheme is excellent. 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 plan like this helps us a lot. Our yields are great which suggests we can settle the expense of the pump gradually in percentages, and have money left over to pay the school fees."

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

But such biofuel plans are appealing because they create 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 - user friendly, robust innovation, guaranteed supply of biodiesel combined with a pay-as-you-go plan - could assist energize rural Africa, he said.

"There is a mosaic of sustainable energy alternatives worldwide. The essential problem is evaluating ideas and methods in a collective style," said Sanyal.

"Other cotton ginning factories in the area ought to attempt and gain from this experiment. Financial institutions need to 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, ladies's and LGBT+ rights, human trafficking, home rights and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org)