By Nita Bhalla

KITUI, Kenya, June 6 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Kenyan farmer Abel Mutie Mathoka thought it must be a joke when he was informed he could irrigate his drought-hit crops more cheaply, easily and efficiently using 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, bending down to check 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 close-by tree and plucking a big green pawpaw. "Irrigation with this biodiesel water pump has assisted me get higher yields, particularly during drought durations."

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

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

Unlike the majority of biofuels, which are obtained from crops such as maize, sugarcane, soybean, rapeseed and jatropha, it is made from a by-product of the cotton-making procedure.

That indicates that along with being cleaner and cheaper 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 pressed farmers to change from crops-for-food to more successful crops-for-fuel - exacerbating food lacks.

"Our biodiesel comes from crushing 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 business 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 so far purchased biodiesel pumps for watering as part of an initiative introduced by Zaynagro in 2015, said Zavery.

DRY RIVER BEDS

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

The repeating droughts are destroying crops and pastures and are starving animals - pressing millions of individuals in the Horn of Africa to the verge of extreme cravings.

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

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

"Only light rainfall is forecast through June ... and this is not expected to reduce drought in impacted areas of Kenya and Somalia," stated the Famine Early Warning Systems Network in its latest report.

"Well below-average crop production, poor livestock body conditions, and increased local food rates are anticipated, which will reduce bad households' access to food."

In Kitui's Kyuso area, the signs are already obvious.

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

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

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

BATTLING DROUGHT WITH BIODIESEL

But not all Kitui's farmers are worried.

A small however growing number are shedding their problem of reliance on the weather condition - and buying irrigation systems powered by Zaynagro's cotton through a pay-as-you-go plan released more than three years ago.

Neighbouring farmers band together to invest in the watering system - which consists of the biodiesel pump, 12 metres of pipelines and 10 litres of biodiesel - at costs beginning from 32,000 shillings, depending on the size of the pump.

The farmers make an initial payment, then pay interest-free regular monthly instalments 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, said the biodiesel pump allowed him to water a larger portion of his one-acre plot, where he grows a variety 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 three months. With the biodiesel pump, I can earn 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 assisting improve their output.

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

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

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

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

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

"There is a mosaic of sustainable energy alternatives worldwide. The essential concern is checking concepts and techniques in a collective fashion," stated Sanyal.

"Other cotton ginning factories in the area must try and gain from this experiment. Banks should begin experimenting with loans to groups of farmers. International donors and investors 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, ladies's and LGBT+ rights, human trafficking, home rights and climate modification. Visit http://news.trust.org)