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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 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, crouching down to examine 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 helped me get greater yields, particularly during dry spell durations."

Mathoka said his earnings 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 less expensive than routine diesel.

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

Unlike most 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 process.

That means that in addition to being cleaner and more affordable than routine fuel, it is more sustainable than other biofuels because no extra land is needed to produce it.

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

"Our biodiesel comes from crushing cotton seeds left over as waste after ginning - the procedure of separating the seeds from raw cotton," stated Taher Zavery, handling director of Zaynagro Industries Ltd, the Kitui-based company producing the biodiesel.

"We began 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 local farmers for watering."

More than 1,200 farmers in Kitui have actually so far purchased biodiesel pumps for irrigation 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 increasingly irregular weather is ending up being commonplace in countries such as Kenya, Somalia, Uganda and Ethiopia, leading to lower rainfall.

The recurring dry spells are damaging crops and pastures and are starving animals - pushing countless people in the Horn of Africa to the edge of extreme hunger.

The variety of Kenyans in need of food aid in March surged by almost 70 percent over a period of 8 months to 1.1 million, mainly due to bad rains, according to federal government figures.

With almost half Kenya's 47 counties stated to have a major scarcity of rain, humanitarian firms are cautioning of increased hunger in the months ahead.

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

"Well below-average crop production, bad animals body conditions, and increased local food costs are prepared for, which will lower bad homes' access to food."

In Kitui's Kyuso area, the indications are currently obvious.

Rivers, water pans and dams are drying up as a result of the .

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

Small-scale farmers, many of whom are reliant on rain-fed farming, go over plans to offer their goats to make ends meet 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 problem of dependence on the weather condition - and buying irrigation systems powered by Zaynagro's cotton seed biodiesel through a pay-as-you-go plan released more than three years earlier.

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

The farmers make a preliminary payment, then pay interest-free monthly instalments up 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, said the biodiesel pump enabled him to water a bigger part of his one-acre plot, where he grows a variety of vegetables 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," stated Alex Babu Kitheka, standing near his plot in Ilangilo town, 40 km (25 miles) from Kitui town.

CIRCULAR ECONOMY

Other farmers indicate the scheme as a significant advantage in assisting improve their output.

"The instalment plan is good. Most farmers don't have the cash and can not easily get a loan to buy 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 great which suggests we can pay off the cost of the pump slowly in small quantities, and have cash left over to pay the school costs."

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

But such biofuel schemes are promising because they create 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 simpleness of the design - user friendly, robust technology, assured supply of biodiesel integrated with a pay-as-you-go scheme - could help amaze rural Africa, he said.

"There is a mosaic of sustainable energy alternatives in the world. The key problem is checking ideas and methods in a collective style," stated Sanyal.

"Other cotton ginning factories in the area need to attempt and gain from this experiment. Financial organizations ought to begin explore 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, home rights and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org)