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 inexpensively, cleanly and efficiently utilizing a pump fuelled by cotton waste.

"Who could think it's possible to make a fuel better than diesel from cotton seeds? I didn't!" chuckled Mathoka, crouching down to check 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 nearby tree and plucking a big green pawpaw. "Irrigation with this biodiesel water pump has helped me get greater yields, specifically throughout drought periods."

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

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

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

That means that along with being cleaner and cheaper than 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 driven forest neighborhoods off their land and pushed farmers to change from crops-for-food to more rewarding crops-for-fuel - intensifying food lacks.

"Our biodiesel comes from crushing cotton seeds left over as waste after ginning - the process of separating the seeds from raw cotton," said 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 some of their buses - and likewise to regional farmers for watering."

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

DRY RIVER BEDS

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

The recurring dry spells are destroying crops and pastures and are starving animals - pushing millions of individuals in the Horn of Africa to the verge of extreme cravings.

The variety of Kenyans in need of food aid in March surged by practically 70 percent over a period 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 severe lack of rain, humanitarian companies are cautioning of increased cravings in the months ahead.

"Only light rains is anticipated through June ... and this is not expected to minimize dry spell in affected areas 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 regional food prices are prepared for, which will minimize bad families' access to food."

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

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

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

Small-scale farmers, many of whom depend on rain-fed farming, discuss 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 small however growing number are shedding their concern of dependence on the weather - and buying irrigation systems powered by Zaynagro's cotton seed biodiesel through a pay-as-you-go plan introduced more than three years earlier.

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

The farmers make an initial payment, then pay interest-free monthly instalments up until the overall is settled. They buy 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 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 three months. With the biodiesel pump, I can make 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 scheme as a significant advantage in helping improve their output.

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

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

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

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

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

"There is a mosaic of sustainable energy alternatives in the world. The key problem is evaluating concepts and methods in a collective style," stated Sanyal.

"Other cotton ginning factories in the region must try and learn from this experiment. Banks must begin explore 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 covers humanitarian news, females's and LGBT+ rights, human trafficking, residential or commercial property rights and climate modification. Visit http://news.trust.org)