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 irrigate his drought-hit crops more cheaply, easily and effectively utilizing 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 inspect 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 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 periods."

Mathoka said his revenues had doubled in the two years he has been pumping water utilizing biodiesel, which is both more effective and 20 shillings ($0.20) per litre cheaper than regular diesel.

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

Unlike most 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 process.

That suggests that along with being cleaner and less expensive 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 actually driven forest communities off their land and pressed farmers to switch from crops-for-food to more rewarding crops-for-fuel - worsening food lacks.

"Our biodiesel comes from squashing cotton seeds left over as waste after ginning - the procedure of separating the seeds from raw cotton," said 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 regional farmers for irrigation."

More than 1,200 farmers in Kitui have actually so far bought biodiesel pumps for watering as part of an effort released by Zaynagro in 2015, stated Zavery.

DRY RIVER BEDS

Climate change is taking a toll across east Africa and progressively erratic weather is becoming commonplace in countries such as Kenya, Somalia, Uganda and Ethiopia, resulting in lower rainfall.

The recurring droughts are destroying crops and pastures and are starving animals - pushing countless people in the Horn of Africa to the edge of extreme hunger.

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

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

"Only light rains is forecast through June ... and this is not expected to minimize drought 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 regional food prices are prepared for, which will lower bad families' access to food."

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

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

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

Small-scale farmers, the majority of whom are reliant on rain-fed agriculture, go over 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 stressed.

A small but growing number are shedding their burden of dependence on the weather - and investing in irrigation systems powered by Zaynagro's cotton seed biodiesel through a pay-as-you-go scheme launched more than three years earlier.

Neighbouring farmers band together to purchase the irrigation system - which consists of the biodiesel pump, 12 metres of pipelines and 10 litres of biodiesel - at costs beginning from 32,000 shillings, depending on the size of the pump.

The farmers make a preliminary payment, then pay interest-free regular monthly 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 allowed him to water a larger portion of his one-acre plot, where he grows a range of veggies 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 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 scheme as a major advantage in helping their output.

"The instalment plan 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 scheme like this helps us a lot. Our yields are good which means we can pay off the expense of the pump slowly in percentages, and have cash left over to pay the school charges."

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

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

The simpleness of the design - easy-to-use, robust technology, guaranteed supply of biodiesel integrated with a pay-as-you-go plan - could assist amaze rural Africa, he stated.

"There is a mosaic of sustainable energy options on the planet. The key problem is evaluating concepts and approaches in a collaborative fashion," said Sanyal.

"Other cotton ginning factories in the region should try and find out 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, women's and LGBT+ rights, human trafficking, home rights and environment modification. Visit http://news.trust.org)