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By Nita Bhalla

KITUI, Kenya, June 6 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Kenyan farmer Abel Mutie Mathoka believed it needs to be a joke when he was told he could irrigate his drought-hit crops more inexpensively, cleanly and efficiently using a pump fuelled by cotton waste.

"Who could believe 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 assisted me get higher yields, especially during drought durations."

Mathoka stated his profits had doubled in the 2 years he has been pumping water using biodiesel, which is both more efficient and 20 shillings ($0.20) per litre cheaper than routine diesel.

The biodiesel he is using is not just good news for him - it is also good news for the planet.

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

That indicates that in addition to being cleaner and less expensive than routine fuel, it is more sustainable than other biofuels because 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 switch from crops-for-food to more successful crops-for-fuel - intensifying 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 business producing the biodiesel.

"We started 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 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 watering as part of an initiative released by Zaynagro in 2015, stated Zavery.

DRY RIVER BEDS

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

The repeating droughts are ruining crops and pastures and are starving animals - pressing countless people in the Horn of Africa to the brink of extreme hunger.

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

With practically half Kenya's 47 counties declared to have a serious 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 anticipated to ease drought in impacted areas 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 local food prices are expected, which will minimize bad homes' access to food."

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

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

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

Small-scale farmers, the majority of whom are reliant on rain-fed farming, discuss strategies to offer 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 but growing number are shedding their concern of dependence on the weather condition - and buying watering systems powered by Zaynagro's cotton seed biodiesel through a pay-as-you-go plan introduced more than 3 years ago.

Neighbouring farmers band together to purchase the irrigation 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 month-to-month instalments till 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, stated the biodiesel pump enabled 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 earn 45,000 shillings," said Alex Babu Kitheka, standing near his plot in Ilangilo town, 40 km (25 miles) from Kitui town.

CIRCULAR ECONOMY

Other farmers point to the scheme as a major benefit in assisting improve their output.

"The instalment plan is good. 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 next to his blue biodiesel pump.

"Having a scheme like this assists us a lot. Our yields are excellent which indicates we can settle the cost of the pump slowly in percentages, and have cash left over to pay the school fees."

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

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

The simplicity of the model - user friendly, robust innovation, guaranteed supply of combined with a pay-as-you-go plan - might assist energize rural Africa, he stated.

"There is a mosaic of sustainable energy alternatives worldwide. The essential concern is testing concepts and techniques in a collective style," said Sanyal.

"Other cotton ginning factories in the area ought to attempt and gain from this experiment. Banks ought to begin experimenting 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, ladies's and LGBT+ rights, human trafficking, residential or commercial property rights and climate modification. Visit http://news.trust.org)