• 목록
• 답변
• 글쓰기
• 게시판 리스트 옵션
  • 수정
  • 삭제

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 might water his drought-hit crops more inexpensively, easily and efficiently using a pump sustained 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, bending 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 said, strolling over to a nearby tree and a big green pawpaw. "Irrigation with this biodiesel water pump has helped me get greater yields, particularly throughout drought durations."

Mathoka said his profits had doubled in the two years he has actually 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 using is not simply great news for him - it is likewise excellent news for the planet.

Unlike many biofuels, which are originated from crops such as maize, sugarcane, soybean, rapeseed and jatropha, it is made from a byproduct of the cotton-making process.

That implies that as well as being cleaner and cheaper than regular fuel, it is more sustainable than other biofuels due to the fact that no additional land is needed 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 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 business producing the biodiesel.

"We began producing and utilizing 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 a few of their buses - and also to local farmers for irrigation."

More than 1,200 farmers in Kitui have up until now invested in biodiesel pumps for watering as part of an effort introduced by Zaynagro in 2015, stated Zavery.

DRY RIVER BEDS

Climate modification is taking a toll across east Africa and progressively erratic weather condition is becoming commonplace in countries such as Kenya, Somalia, Uganda and Ethiopia, leading to lower rainfall.

The repeating droughts are destroying crops and pastures and are starving animals - pushing millions of individuals in the Horn of Africa to the edge of extreme hunger.

The variety of Kenyans in need of food help in March rose by almost 70 percent over a duration of 8 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 severe lack of rain, humanitarian companies are cautioning of increased hunger in the months ahead.

"Only light rains is forecast through June ... and this is not anticipated to reduce dry spell in affected areas 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 regional food prices are prepared for, which will decrease poor homes' access to food."

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

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

Villagers grumble of travelling longer distances - often more than 10 km (6 miles) with their donkeys laden with empty jerry cans searching 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 poor.

BATTLING DROUGHT WITH BIODIESEL

But not all Kitui's farmers are worried.

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

Neighbouring farmers band together to buy the watering system - that includes the biodiesel pump, 12 metres of pipelines and 10 litres of biodiesel - at expenses 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 overall is settled. 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 water a bigger portion 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," 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 plan as a significant benefit in helping improve their output.

"The instalment scheme is excellent. Most farmers don't have the money 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 indicates we can pay off the expense of the pump gradually in percentages, and have cash left over to pay the school charges."

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

But such biofuel plans are promising because they produce 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 simpleness of the design - user friendly, robust technology, assured supply of biodiesel integrated with a pay-as-you-go scheme - might assist electrify rural Africa, he said.

"There is a mosaic of sustainable energy choices worldwide. The crucial problem is checking ideas and techniques in a collective fashion," said Sanyal.

"Other cotton ginning factories in the region need to try and learn from this experiment. Financial institutions need to start explore loans to groups of farmers. International donors and investors 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, women's and LGBT+ rights, human trafficking, home rights and environment change. Visit http://news.trust.org)