By Nita Bhalla

KITUI, Kenya, June 6 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Kenyan farmer Abel Mutie Mathoka believed it must be a joke when he was told he might irrigate his drought-hit crops more cheaply, cleanly and efficiently using 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!" laughed 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 stated, walking over to a neighboring tree and plucking a big green pawpaw. "Irrigation with this biodiesel water pump has actually assisted me get greater yields, particularly during drought 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 less expensive than routine diesel.

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

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

That means that as well as being cleaner and less expensive than routine 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 driven forest communities off their land and pressed farmers to change from crops-for-food to more successful crops-for-fuel - worsening food scarcities.

"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 began producing and utilizing it to power our cotton ginning factory in 2011. With increased production, we now utilize it for our trucks, offer it to the United Nations to run some of their buses - and likewise to local farmers for irrigation."

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

DRY RIVER BEDS

Climate modification is taking a toll across east Africa and significantly unpredictable weather condition is becoming commonplace in nations such as Kenya, Somalia, Uganda and Ethiopia, resulting in lower rains.

The repeating dry spells are damaging crops and pastures and are starving animals - pushing countless individuals in the Horn of Africa to the verge of extreme hunger.

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

With nearly half Kenya's 47 counties stated to have a severe lack of rain, humanitarian firms are warning of increased cravings in the months ahead.

"Only light rainfall is anticipated through June ... and this is not expected to ease dry spell in affected locations of Kenya and Somalia," stated the Famine Early Warning Systems Network in its most current report.

"Well below-average crop production, bad livestock body conditions, and increased regional food rates are prepared for, which will decrease bad families' access to food."

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

Rivers, water pans and dams are drying up as an outcome of the extended dry spell.

Villagers experience travelling longer distances - sometimes more than 10 km (6 miles) with their with empty jerry cans in search of water.

Small-scale farmers, the majority of whom are reliant on rain-fed agriculture, go over plans to sell 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 however growing number are shedding their problem of reliance on the weather condition - and investing in irrigation systems powered by Zaynagro's cotton seed biodiesel through a pay-as-you-go plan introduced more than 3 years earlier.

Neighbouring farmers unite to invest in the watering system - that includes the biodiesel pump, 12 metres of pipes and 10 litres of biodiesel - at expenses starting 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 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 variety 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 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 indicate the scheme as a major benefit in assisting enhance their output.

"The instalment scheme is excellent. Most farmers do not have the cash and can not quickly 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 means we can pay off the cost of the pump slowly in little amounts, and have cash left over to pay the school charges."

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

But such biofuel schemes are promising since they produce a circular economy by turning waste to biofuel for earnings, said Sanjoy Sanyal, senior associate for Clean Energy Finance at the World Resources Institute.

The simplicity of the design - user friendly, robust technology, assured supply of biodiesel integrated with a pay-as-you-go scheme - might assist amaze rural Africa, he stated.

"There is a mosaic of sustainable energy alternatives on the planet. The crucial problem is evaluating ideas and techniques in a collective style," said Sanyal.

"Other cotton ginning factories in the region must attempt and find out from this experiment. Financial organizations should start exploring 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, women's and LGBT+ rights, human trafficking, residential or commercial property rights and environment change. Visit http://news.trust.org)