By Nita Bhalla

KITUI, Kenya, June 6 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Kenyan farmer Abel Mutie Mathoka thought it should be a joke when he was told he could water his drought-hit crops more inexpensively, easily and efficiently using a pump sustained 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 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 big green pawpaw. "Irrigation with this biodiesel water pump has helped me get greater yields, particularly throughout dry spell periods."

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

The biodiesel he is utilizing is not simply excellent news for him - it is also excellent news for the world.

Unlike the majority of biofuels, which are derived 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 as well as being cleaner and cheaper than regular fuel, it is more sustainable than other biofuels because no extra land is required to produce it.

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

"Our biodiesel originates from crushing cotton seeds left over as waste after ginning - the process of separating the seeds from raw cotton," said Taher Zavery, handling 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 use 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 up until now bought biodiesel pumps for irrigation as part of an initiative introduced by Zaynagro in 2015, said Zavery.

DRY RIVER BEDS

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

The recurring droughts are damaging crops and pastures and are starving animals - pressing millions of individuals in the Horn of Africa to the verge of severe appetite.

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

With nearly half Kenya's 47 counties stated to have a major lack of rain, humanitarian agencies are alerting of increased appetite in the months ahead.

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

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

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

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

Villagers experience travelling longer distances - often 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, go over plans to offer their goats to make ends fulfill if the harvest is bad.

BATTLING DROUGHT WITH BIODIESEL

But not all Kitui's farmers are fretted.

A small however growing number are shedding their burden of reliance on the weather - and buying irrigation systems powered by Zaynagro's cotton seed biodiesel through a pay-as-you-go scheme launched more than three years earlier.

Neighbouring farmers unite to invest in the irrigation system - which includes the biodiesel pump, 12 metres of pipelines 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 monthly instalments 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 irrigate a bigger portion 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," 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 advantage in helping enhance their output.

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

"Having a plan like this assists us a lot. Our yields are good which implies we can settle the expense of the pump slowly in percentages, and have cash left over to pay the school charges."

Zaynagro's initiative is still in its early phases, with couple of farmers having 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 revenue, stated Sanjoy Sanyal, senior partner for Clean Energy Finance at the World Resources Institute.

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

"There is a mosaic of sustainable energy options in the world. The essential concern is testing ideas and techniques in a collective fashion," stated Sanyal.

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