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 could water his drought-hit crops more cheaply, easily and effectively using a pump sustained by cotton waste.

"Who could believe it's possible to make a fuel much better than diesel from cotton seeds? I didn't!" chuckled Mathoka, crouching down to inspect the watermelons on his 10-acre (four-hectare) shared plot in Ituri town in Kenya's southeast Kitui county.

"But it works," he stated, strolling over to a neighboring tree and plucking a big green pawpaw. "Irrigation with this biodiesel water pump has assisted me get higher yields, specifically during drought durations."

Mathoka stated his profits 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 cheaper than routine diesel.

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

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

That suggests that along with being cleaner and cheaper than routine fuel, it is more sustainable than other biofuels because 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 pushed farmers to switch from crops-for-food to more lucrative 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, managing 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 utilize it for our trucks, sell it to the United Nations to run a few of their buses - and also to regional farmers for watering."

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

DRY RIVER BEDS

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

The repeating dry spells are ruining crops and pastures and are starving animals - pressing millions of people in the Horn of Africa to the verge of severe appetite.

The number of Kenyans in need of food help in March surged by nearly 70 percent over a period of 8 months to 1.1 million, mostly due to poor rains, according to government figures.

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

"Only light rains is anticipated 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 most current report.

"Well below-average crop production, poor animals body conditions, and increased regional food costs are expected, which will lower poor families' 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 extended dry spell.

Villagers experience trekking longer ranges - sometimes more than 10 km (6 miles) with their donkeys packed with empty jerry cans looking for water.

Small-scale farmers, many of whom are dependent on rain-fed agriculture, talk about 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 stressed.

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

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

The farmers make an initial payment, then pay interest-free regular monthly instalments until the overall is paid off. They buy 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 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 3 months. With the biodiesel pump, I can make 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 plan as a major advantage in helping improve their output.

"The instalment scheme is good. Most farmers do not 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 assists us a lot. Our yields are excellent which means we can pay off the expense of the pump gradually in little amounts, and have money left over to pay the school charges."

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

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

The simpleness of the design - user friendly, robust technology, guaranteed supply of biodiesel combined with a pay-as-you-go scheme - could help energize rural Africa, he said.

"There is a mosaic of sustainable energy alternatives in the world. The crucial problem is evaluating ideas and techniques in a collaborative style," said Sanyal.

"Other cotton ginning factories in the area should attempt and learn from this experiment. Financial organizations ought to start experimenting with 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 . Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, ladies's and LGBT+ rights, human trafficking, residential or commercial property rights and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org)