By Nita Bhalla

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

"But it works," he said, strolling over to a nearby tree and plucking a large green pawpaw. "Irrigation with this biodiesel water pump has helped me get greater yields, particularly throughout drought periods."

Mathoka stated his revenues had doubled in the 2 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 good news for him - it is likewise great 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 procedure.

That suggests that in addition to being cleaner and more affordable than routine 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 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 some of their buses - and likewise to local farmers for irrigation."

More than 1,200 farmers in Kitui have up until now purchased 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 throughout east Africa and significantly erratic weather condition is becoming commonplace in nations such as Kenya, Somalia, Uganda and Ethiopia, resulting in lower rainfall.

The repeating droughts are damaging crops and pastures and are starving animals - pressing millions of people in the Horn of Africa to the verge of extreme appetite.

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

With nearly half Kenya's 47 counties declared to have a serious shortage of rain, humanitarian companies are alerting of increased hunger in the months ahead.

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

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

In Kitui's Kyuso location, the indications are already apparent.

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

Villagers complain of travelling longer distances - in some cases more than 10 km (6 miles) with their donkeys packed with empty jerry cans looking for water.

Small-scale farmers, the majority of whom depend on rain-fed farming, discuss strategies to sell their goats to make ends meet if the harvest is poor.

BATTLING DROUGHT WITH BIODIESEL

But not all Kitui's farmers are stressed.

A little but growing number are shedding their burden of reliance on the weather - and investing in watering systems powered by Zaynagro's cotton seed biodiesel through a pay-as-you-go scheme released more than 3 years earlier.

Neighbouring farmers band together to purchase the irrigation system - that includes the biodiesel pump, 12 metres of pipes and 10 litres of biodiesel - at costs beginning from 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 total is settled. They purchase 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 bigger part of his one-acre plot, where he grows a range of veggies 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," 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 significant benefit in helping enhance their output.

"The instalment scheme is good. Most farmers don't have the cash and can not quickly get a loan to buy a pump like this," said Maurice Kitheka Munyoki, 41, as he stood next to his blue biodiesel pump.

"Having a plan like this helps us a lot. Our yields are great which indicates we can pay off the cost of the pump gradually in little amounts, and have cash left over to pay the school charges."

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

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

The simplicity of the model - easy-to-use, robust technology, assured supply of biodiesel combined with a pay-as-you-go scheme - could help electrify rural Africa, he said.

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

"Other cotton ginning factories in the area must try and discover from this experiment. Banks must begin try out 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, home rights and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org)