{"id":16059,"date":"2025-01-14T00:00:29","date_gmt":"2025-01-14T00:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enitajobs.com\/employer\/mission-biofuels-sdn-bhd-3\/"},"modified":"2025-01-18T12:57:52","modified_gmt":"2025-01-18T12:57:52","slug":"mission-agroenergy-ltd-8","status":"publish","type":"employer","link":"https:\/\/enitajobs.com\/en\/employer\/mission-agroenergy-ltd-8\/","title":{"rendered":"Mission Agroenergy Ltd"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cotton Waste Biofuel Powers Farmers to Fight Drought In Kenya<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

By Nita Bhalla<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

KITUI, Kenya, June 6 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Kenyan farmer Abel Mutie Mathoka believed it must be a joke when he was told he could irrigate his drought-hit crops more cheaply, cleanly and efficiently using a pump sustained by cotton waste.<\/p>\n

“Who could believe it’s possible to make a fuel better than diesel from cotton seeds? I didn’t!” laughed Mathoka, crouching down to inspect the watermelons on his 10-acre (four-hectare) shared plot in Ituri town in Kenya’s southeast<\/a> Kitui county.<\/p>\n

“But it works,” he said, walking over to a nearby tree<\/a> and plucking a large green pawpaw. “Irrigation with this biodiesel water pump has helped me get greater yields, especially during dry spell periods.”<\/p>\n

Mathoka said his incomes had doubled in the 2 years he has actually been pumping water utilizing biodiesel<\/a>, which is both more effective and 20 shillings ($0.20) per litre cheaper than regular diesel.<\/p>\n

The biodiesel he is using is not just excellent news for him – it is also great news for the planet.<\/p>\n

Unlike the majority of biofuels, which are stemmed from crops such as maize, sugarcane, soybean, rapeseed and jatropha curcas<\/a>, it is made from a by-product of the cotton-making process.<\/p>\n

That means that as well as being cleaner and more affordable than regular fuel, it is more sustainable than other biofuels since no extra land<\/a> is needed to produce<\/a> it.<\/p>\n

From Brazil to Indonesia, the rush to cultivate biofuel<\/a> crops has actually driven forest neighborhoods off their land and pushed farmers to switch from crops-for-food to more rewarding crops-for-fuel – worsening food scarcities.<\/p>\n

“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<\/a> producing the biodiesel.<\/p>\n

“We started producing and utilizing it to power our cotton ginning factory in 2011. With increased production, we now utilize it for our trucks, offer it to the United Nations to run a few of their buses – and also to regional farmers for irrigation.”<\/p>\n

More than 1,200 farmers in Kitui have actually up until now purchased<\/a> biodiesel<\/a> pumps for irrigation as part of an initiative released by Zaynagro in 2015, stated Zavery.<\/p>\n

DRY RIVER BEDS<\/p>\n

Climate change is taking a toll throughout east Africa<\/a> and increasingly erratic<\/a> weather is ending up being commonplace in nations such as Kenya, Somalia, Uganda and Ethiopia, leading to lower rains.<\/p>\n

The recurring dry spells are damaging crops and pastures and are starving animals – pressing countless individuals in the Horn of Africa to the verge of extreme hunger.<\/p>\n

The number of Kenyans in need of food help in March rose by nearly 70 percent over a period of 8 months to 1.1 million, largely due to bad rains, according to federal government figures.<\/p>\n

With practically half Kenya’s 47 counties stated to have a major scarcity of rain, humanitarian<\/a> firms are warning of in the months ahead.<\/p>\n

“Only light rainfall is forecast through June … and this is not expected to alleviate dry spell in affected areas of Kenya and Somalia,” said the Famine Early Warning Systems Network in its newest report.<\/p>\n

“Well below-average crop production, poor animals body conditions, and increased regional food costs are prepared for, which will lower bad families’ access to food.”<\/p>\n

In Kitui’s Kyuso area, the signs are already apparent.<\/p>\n

Rivers, water pans and dams are drying up as an outcome of the prolonged dry spell.<\/p>\n

Villagers suffer trekking longer distances – often more than 10 km (6 miles) with their donkeys laden with empty jerry cans in search of water.<\/p>\n

Small-scale farmers, the majority of whom are reliant on rain-fed farming, discuss plans to sell their goats to make ends fulfill if the harvest is poor.<\/p>\n

BATTLING DROUGHT WITH BIODIESEL<\/p>\n

But not all Kitui’s farmers are fretted.<\/p>\n

A little however growing number are shedding their burden of reliance on the weather condition<\/a> – and investing in irrigation systems powered by Zaynagro’s cotton seed biodiesel through a pay-as-you-go plan launched more than 3 years ago.<\/p>\n

Neighbouring farmers band together to buy the irrigation<\/a> system – which consists of the biodiesel pump, 12 metres of pipes and 10 litres of biodiesel – at costs beginning from 32,000 shillings, depending on the size of the pump.<\/p>\n

The farmers make a preliminary payment, then pay interest-free regular monthly instalments till the overall is paid off. They purchase the biodiesel<\/a> to run the pumps from Zaynagro at 80 shillings a litre.<\/p>\n

Farmer Alex<\/a> Babu Kitheka, 39, stated the biodiesel<\/a> pump permitted him to water a bigger portion of his one-acre plot, where he grows a range of vegetables including maize, tomatoes, spinach and sweet potatoes.<\/p>\n

“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,” stated Alex Babu Kitheka, standing near his plot in Ilangilo village, 40 km (25 miles) from Kitui town.<\/p>\n

CIRCULAR ECONOMY<\/p>\n

Other farmers indicate the plan as a significant advantage in helping improve their output.<\/p>\n

“The instalment plan is excellent. Most farmers do not 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.<\/p>\n

“Having a scheme like this helps us a lot. Our yields are good which means we can pay off the cost of the pump gradually in percentages, and have money left over to pay the school fees.”<\/p>\n

Zaynagro’s initiative is still in its early stages, with few farmers having actually repaid the complete expense of the pumps.<\/p>\n

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

The simpleness of the design – easy-to-use, robust innovation, ensured supply of biodiesel combined with a pay-as-you-go plan – might help energize rural Africa, he said.<\/p>\n

“There is a mosaic of sustainable energy choices on the planet. The essential issue is testing concepts and techniques in a collective style,” stated Sanyal.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

“Other cotton ginning factories in the region ought to try and find out from this experiment. Banks should begin experimenting with loans to groups of farmers. International donors and investors require to support experimentation.”<\/p>\n

($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<\/a> and LGBT+ rights, human trafficking, property rights and climate change. Visit http:\/\/news.trust.org)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","employer_category":[],"employer_location":[],"class_list":["post-16059","employer","type-employer","status-publish","hentry"],"cmb2":{"_employer_general":{"_employer_attached_user":"","_employer_email":"","_employer_founded_date":"","_employer_website":"","_employer_phone":"","_employer_featured":"","_employer_cover_photo":"","_employer_cover_photo_id":"","_employer_profile_photos":"","_employer_video_url":"","_employer_layout_type":""},"_employer_socials":{"_employer_socials":""},"_employer_map_location":{"_employer_address":"","_employer_map_location":""},"_employer_team_members":{"_employer_team_members":""},"_employer_employees":{"_employer_employees":[]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/enitajobs.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/employer\/16059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/enitajobs.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/employer"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/enitajobs.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/employer"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enitajobs.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/enitajobs.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"employer_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enitajobs.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/employer_category?post=16059"},{"taxonomy":"employer_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enitajobs.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/employer_location?post=16059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}