By Nita Bhalla

KITUI, Kenya, June 6 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Kenyan farmer Abel Mutie Mathoka thought it must be a joke when he was informed he might water his drought-hit crops more cheaply, easily and efficiently utilizing a pump sustained 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 stated, walking over to a neighboring tree and plucking a big green pawpaw. "Irrigation with this biodiesel water pump has actually helped me get higher yields, particularly throughout dry spell durations."

Mathoka said his earnings had actually 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 more affordable than regular diesel.

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

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

That suggests that as well as being cleaner and cheaper than routine fuel, it is more sustainable than other biofuels due to the fact that no extra land is needed 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 rewarding crops-for-fuel - worsening food scarcities.

"Our biodiesel comes from crushing 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 a few of their buses - and also to local farmers for watering."

More than 1,200 farmers in Kitui have so far bought biodiesel pumps for irrigation as part of an effort introduced by Zaynagro in 2015, said Zavery.

DRY RIVER BEDS

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

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

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

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

"Only light rainfall is forecast through June ... and this is not anticipated to relieve dry spell in affected locations of Kenya and Somalia," said the Famine Early Warning Systems Network in its newest report.

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

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

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

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

Small-scale farmers, the majority of whom depend 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 stressed.

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

Neighbouring farmers band together to purchase the watering system - that includes 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 a preliminary payment, then pay interest-free regular monthly instalments until the total is settled. They purchase the biodiesel to run the pumps from Zaynagro at 80 shillings a litre.

Farmer Alex Babu Kitheka, 39, said the biodiesel pump allowed him to irrigate a bigger part of his one-acre plot, where he grows a range of vegetables consisting of 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 major advantage in helping enhance their output.

"The instalment scheme is good. Most farmers don't have the cash and can not easily get a loan to buy a pump like this," said 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 great which means we can settle the expense of the pump gradually in percentages, and have money left over to pay the school charges."

Zaynagro's initiative is still in its early phases, with couple of farmers having repaid the full expense of the pumps.

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

The simplicity of the model - easy-to-use, robust innovation, ensured supply of biodiesel integrated with a pay-as-you-go plan - might assist electrify rural Africa, he stated.

"There is a mosaic of sustainable energy options worldwide. The essential problem is evaluating concepts and approaches in a collective style," stated Sanyal.

"Other cotton ginning factories in the region need to try and find out from this experiment. Financial organizations need to begin try out loans to groups of farmers. International donors and investors 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 news, women's and LGBT+ rights, human trafficking, home rights and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org)