By Nita Bhalla

KITUI, Kenya, June 6 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Kenyan farmer Abel Mutie Mathoka thought it should be a joke when he was informed he could irrigate his drought-hit crops more inexpensively, easily and effectively 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!" laughed Mathoka, crouching down to check the watermelons on his 10-acre (four-hectare) shared plot in Ituri town in Kenya's southeast Kitui county.

"But it works," he stated, strolling over to a close-by tree and plucking a big green pawpaw. "Irrigation with this biodiesel water pump has actually helped me get greater yields, especially during drought durations."

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

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

Unlike the majority of biofuels, which are originated 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 cheaper than regular fuel, it is more sustainable than other biofuels since no additional land is required to produce it.

From Brazil to Indonesia, the rush to cultivate biofuel crops has actually driven forest communities off their land and pushed farmers to change from crops-for-food to more successful crops-for-fuel - exacerbating food scarcities.

"Our biodiesel originates 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 using it to power our cotton ginning factory in 2011. With increased production, we now utilize it for our trucks, sell it to the United Nations to run some 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 irrigation as part of an effort launched by Zaynagro in 2015, said Zavery.

DRY RIVER BEDS

Climate change is taking a toll across east Africa and significantly irregular weather condition is ending up being commonplace in nations such as Kenya, Somalia, Uganda and Ethiopia, resulting in lower rains.

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

The variety of Kenyans in requirement of food help in March rose by practically 70 percent over a duration of 8 months to 1.1 million, largely due to poor rains, according to federal government figures.

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

"Only light rainfall is forecast through June ... and this is not expected to minimize drought in affected locations of Kenya and Somalia," stated the Famine Early Warning Systems Network in its newest report.

"Well below-average crop production, bad animals body conditions, and increased local food rates are expected, which will minimize bad families' access to food."

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

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

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

Small-scale farmers, the majority of whom are dependent on rain-fed farming, go over plans to offer their goats to make ends meet if the harvest is poor.

BATTLING DROUGHT WITH BIODIESEL

But not all Kitui's farmers are fretted.

A small however growing number are shedding their concern 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 released more than three years ago.

Neighbouring farmers band together to invest in the irrigation system - which includes the biodiesel pump, 12 metres of pipes and 10 litres of biodiesel - at expenses beginning with 32,000 shillings, depending upon the size of the pump.

The farmers make a preliminary payment, then pay interest-free regular 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 permitted 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 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 plan as a major benefit in helping enhance their output.

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

"Having a scheme like this helps us a lot. Our yields are great which implies we can settle the expense of the pump gradually in little amounts, and have money left over to pay the school costs."

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

But such biofuel plans are promising since they produce 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 simplicity of the design - user friendly, robust technology, guaranteed supply of biodiesel integrated with a - might help amaze rural Africa, he stated.

"There is a mosaic of sustainable energy alternatives on the planet. The essential problem is testing concepts and techniques in a collaborative fashion," said Sanyal.

"Other cotton ginning factories in the area ought to attempt and learn from this experiment. Financial organizations need to begin exploring with loans to groups of farmers. International donors and financiers require 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, property rights and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org)