KYRGYZSTAN
by Anthony Fitzherbert 1.1 Geographical location 3. CLIMATE AND AGRO-ECOLOGICAL ZONES 4. RUMINANT LIVESTOCK PRODUCTION SYSTEMS 4.1 Historical Background 5.1 Carrying
Capacity of the Grazing Lands 6. OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT OF PASTURE RESOURCES 6.1 Rotational grazing 7. CULTIVATED FODDER CROPS and NATURAL HAY MEADOWS
7.2 The potential for alternative short duration pulses for small mixed farms 7.3 Barley 7.4 Haymaking 7.5 Silage 7.6 Other Fodder Crops 7.7 Seed Production 8. RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT ORGANIZATIONS AND PERSONNEL
1. INTRODUCTION Kyrgyzstan is a small, mountainous, landlocked country in the heart of Central Asia lying between 390 and 430 N and 690 and 800 E, covering 198 000 kms2, with a mixed ethnic population of under 4 500 000. (According to the Word Factbook the July 2006 est. was 5,213,898 and the population growth rate about 1.32%)The country is bounded to the north by Kazakstan, to the south by China and Tajikistan and to the west by Uzbekistan, and is almost entirely mountainous with only 7% of the land area suitable for arable agriculture. Together with Tajikistan, it is among the poorest of the former Soviet Union republics.
The main group, the Kyrgyz, make up about 55% of the population. They are a nominally Moslem people with a long tradition as nomad herdsmen and horsemen, speaking a Turkic tongue. Their traditional life-style and ancestral origin in the Altai and the basin of the Yenisei was not dissimilar to that of the Mongols as dwellers in round tents of grey-brown felt draped and bound over a flexible wooden framework (yurta in Russian and boz ooyi i.e. 'grey house' in Kyrgyz). The boz ooyi together with the high crowned white felt hat ak kalpak, the heroic saga of the Manas cycle and fermented mare's milk koumiss are the proud symbols of their nation. This is a life-style for which the country is ideally suited, but for the majority it is now greatly changed. The influence of seventy years as part of the USSR was profound. The legacy of these times remains and ten years of independence have brought more uncertainty than economic benefit to the rural population. Under the Soviet Union emphasis was placed on stock-rearing of fine-wool sheep. Together with water, the natural pastures and grazing-lands of the Tien Shan mountains comprise the Republic's most valuable natural resources. The capital Bishkek (former Frunze), population about 900 000, is situated at between 700 and 850 metres at the immediate foot of the northern Tien Shan ranges [Tien Shan - The Celestial Mountains-Chinese: Ala Tau - the Speckled Mountains-Kyrgyz] and commanding the fertile Chu river valley at the southern most edge of the great Kazakh steppe. Administratively the country is divided into seven provinces or oblast (Chui; Talas; Issyk-kul; Naryn; Osh; Jalalabad and Badken) which in turn are divided into forty five districts or rayon. When Kyrgyzstan gained independence in 1991 it opted to be a democratic republic. Attitudes are, however, still influenced by the Soviet experience, as well as by the clan structure of Kyrgyz society which now dominates political as well as administrative life. The area comprising modern Kyrgyzstan was brought under Russian control in the 1860s and in 1865 incorporated into the Czarist provinces of Ferghana and Semireche. This opened up the region to European settlement in an area previously inhabited mainly by nomadic tribes. The whole region was much contested after the Bolshevik revolution of 1917, but Russian control was regained in the 1920s. Kirgizia (as it was called) was declared a Soviet Socialist Republic in 1936. This gave the present Republic a political identity which it had not possessed historically. To provide Kirgizia with a minimum of productive crop land, a fringe of territory was added to the republic in the 1930s, in the rich Ferghana valley, incorporating the historic towns of Osh and Jalalabad and a mainly Uzbek population with ancient traditions of settled irrigated agriculture. Enforced settlement and collectivisation in the 1930s dealt a blow to the independent tribal, nomadic life-style of the Kyrgyz, from which it has not recovered. However, after the Second World War, their pastoral skills and traditions as herdsmen were successfully harnessed by the USSR to raise sheep and cattle. Traditional stock-rearing was based on transhumance [the seasonal use by domestic livestock and their herders, using different areas of the mountain pastures roughly along zones of altitude], using hardy local breeds. At that time the herds and flocks were more or less in equilibrium with their environment and the pastoral system stable. Under the Soviet Union the emphasis was placed on specialising in fine-wool sheep, less hardy than the local land races. Stock numbers were deliberately increased, supported by imported feed and a complex of other services. Excessive stocking led to the serious deterioration of the pastures and range lands, coupled with some loss of hardiness in favoured breeds. After independence, with the privatisation and division of the sheep flocks, coinciding with the collapse of the wool market and with imported feed no longer available or affordable, sheep numbers have declined precipitously. This has also coincided with a serious decline in the custom and practice of transhumance herding, with the result that, though the remoter pastures are presently under-stocked, the more accessible pastures now tend to be over stocked and seriously degraded. This situation is very different from that experienced in Mongolia where mobile grazing systems, using hardy indigenous breeds with little or no supplementary feed was and has never ceased to be the general practice. In sharp contrast to Kyrgyzstan stock numbers in Mongolia, including sheep and yaks, and in particular cashmere goats have consistently risen since the end of collectivised herding. The ethnic mixture of the Republic's population was further complicated
during and after the Second World War by the settlement of many minority
groups as well as Russian administrators and technicians from elsewhere
in the USSR, giving the Republic the multi-ethnic character that is
still its dominant social characteristic. Many of these settlers came
from a rural background and were established in sovkhoz and
kolkhoz (state and collective farms hereafter referred to, for
brevity, as collectives ) on much of the best agricultural
land. The Kyrgyz were employed mainly as herdsmen, but living much
more controlled lives as part of a centralised production programme.
After the perestroyka years, in the late 1980s, the Kyrgyz Supreme Soviet voted for independence from the USSR in August 1991 and later in May 1993 for the economic and political reforms proposed by the present president, Askar Akaev. Despite the ambitious programme of political, economic, land and agrarian reforms set in train at that time, and still in progress, the predominantly rural economy has not taken off as was hoped. Much has reverted to subsistence agriculture, operating largely through a non-cash system of barter. All but a few of the intensive livestock production units ceased to operate within two years of independence. The collapse of a captive Soviet market and a declining international market for wool, coinciding with the division and privatisation of the state owned flocks that started in the mid 1980s, has led to a dramatic reduction in the numbers of sheep from an estimated 14 500 000 head in 1990 / 91 (including both state and privately owned animals) to possibly less than 3 000 000 at present. The numbers of other stock (cattle, goats and horses but not yaks) has remained stable and may even have increased, but production is now predominantly for subsistence. The country's need to feed itself has led to a considerable expansion of the area under wheat, largely at the expense of land previously growing fodder, mainly lucerne (Medicago sativa) and sainfoin (Onobrychis viciifolia), and barley. All these factors have had and are having a profound influence on the production systems and pastoral resources of the Republic. The Kyrgyz, the politically dominant group, make up roughly 55% of a population of about 4 500 000. This proportion is increasing with the steady emigration of other groups, particularly those of European descent. The country remains multi-ethnic in character including; Russians, Ukrainians, Uzbeks, Germans, Tartars, Turks, Dungans (Chinese Moslems), Kazakhs, Uigurs, Tajiks, Koreans and smaller groups from the Caucasus and elsewhere. All these peoples keep livestock of some kind in addition to their arable farming. Many rural Kyrgyz now live as settled farmers but are still considered to be primarily herdsmen with most of the mountain grazing and pasture lands being under Kyrgyz management. Over 60% of the population live in the rural areas, but there is a steady drift to the cities of Bishkek and Osh, particularly from poor, mainly Kyrgyz-populated highland districts. More Kyrgyz are now urban dwellers than ever before. 1.5 Agriculture and Crop Production In Kyrgyzstan 109 000 km2 are designated as agricultural land in the broadest sense, of which only 14 000 km2, 7% of the total land mass, are suitable for arable farming. Of this between 7 320 and 8 372 km2 are designated as being available for irrigated crop production. The lower figure is almost certainly closer to reality, as possibly as much as 1 000 km2 of land (both rain-fed and irrigated) has fallen out of cultivation in recent years, much of it permanently. This is particularly true of Chui, Issyk-kul and Naryn oblasts due to the break down of irrigation and drainage systems, lack of essential inputs, machinery and financial resources and in some places due to emigration, especially those of European descent. There is much greater population pressure on the land in the Ferghana oblasts and consequently less abandoned arable land. The total area of crops is estimated at about 12 200 km2 of which 7 300 km2 (59%) are irrigated and 4 900 (41%) are rain-fed. Little of the abandoned land currently has any significant value as pasturage and much of it has tended to revert to reed beds, or noxious, spiny weeds and scrub. The main crops (see Tables 2 and 3) are wheat, barley, maize (for grain and silage), potatoes, melons, oilseed crops, vegetables of many kinds and fodder, mainly lucerne on the better irrigated land and sainfoin on the less well irrigated hill slopes. Sugar beet is an important cash crop in Chui oblast; cotton and tobacco in the southern 'Ferghana' oblasts. Since independence the need for local self sufficiency has given wheat production an importance it never had in Soviet times when the Republic was, to a great extent, fed from elsewhere. Driven by local demand and the experience of the shortages that followed independence, the wheat acreage has increased greatly since the early 1990s. According to official data a total of 193 582 ha of wheat were grown in 1990; in 1999 the official figure was 482 717 ha (both irrigated and rain fed). This increase in area has taken place even as yields have fallen. The greatest increase has been at the expense of other irrigated arable crops, much of it replacing planted fodder crops (mainly lucerne and sainfoin) and barley, which previously helped sustain an intensive livestock industry. This concentration on wheat production has been at the expense of good agronomic practice and rotations. The area sown to wheat is currently showing signs of having stabilised and even to have contracted somewhat in favour of crops such as oil seeds. (For crop / area trends 1990 to 1999 see Tables 1 and 2). The total area of planted fodder crops, which are mainly accounted for by lucerne and sainfoin are recorded as having decreased from about 432 400 ha in 1990 to 231 500 ha in 1999. The balance being largely replaced by wheat. The area sown to barley in 1990 is recorded as having been 266 399 ha, which by 1999 had fallen to 101 961 ha. Oil seed crops on the other hand have shown a remarkable increase from a total of 7 801 in 1990, mainly on irrigated land, to a total of 68 488 ha in 1990 almost equally split between irrigated crops of sunflower and (to a lesser extent) rape and mainly rain-fed crops of safflower. Also, reflecting the increasingly subsistence and peasant nature of Kyrgyz agriculture, the area cultivated for growing domestic survival crops has increased substantially; potatoes from 25 200 ha in 1990 to 64 000 ha in 1999, and vegetable crops from 20 600 in 1990 to 46 900 in 1999. This also reflects a growing small-farmer cash market for these crops in the towns and cities. Commercial, as opposed to back garden, vegetable production is often in the hands of certain ethnic groups; Uzbeks in the South, in the Ferghana oblasts; Dungans and Koreans in Chui. Cabbages (for the Siberian market) are grown in Issyk-kul and potatoes in Issyk-kul, Naryn and other highland areas of Osh and Talas and almost everywhere as an important kitchen garden, domestic, survival crop. Sugar beet production, which is almost exclusively confined to the Chui oblast, and to a limited extent in Talas oblast, has increased over the last ten years, from a point where it had almost ceased in the mid 1980s due to serious nematode infestation, the result of poor rotation. In 1990 the area sown to sugar beet is recorded as being only 103 ha, while in 1999 it was 28 895 ha. The main incentive has been the highly lucrative local market for vodka. Though farmers who grow sugar beet may also have access to beet pulp for animal feed this does not appear to be well organised since the collapse of the state farming system. Previously the collectiveswhich grew sugar beet often also kept herds of milking cows or managed beef fattening units. The past ten years has seen an over all decrease in maize production and a change in proportion between grain and silage production. In 1990 a total of 155 261 ha of land is recorded as having been planted to maize, of which 65 664 (42.3%) was for grain, and 89 597 ha (57.7%) was for silage. The data for 1999 shows a very reduced total of 81 560 ha planted in maize (a reduction of 73 701 ha) of which 61 009 ha (74.8%) was for grain, and 20 551 ha (25.2%) for silage. All the main deciduous, temperate fruits grow well in Kyrgyzstan and the Tien Shan is a significant geographical centre of origin for many. The commercial orchards and vineyards of the previous collectives tend now to be poorly managed but every rural household has a few fruit trees and berry bushes in their gardens and dacha which are of great importance to household economies. 1.6 Agricultural Inputs and Yields (see Table 3) Crops yields are low and have fallen considerably since independence due to a combination of causes, among which are lack of cash in the rural economy as well as the unavailability and expense of fertiliser, herbicide and good seed. Most agricultural machinery, equipment and processing plant (seed cleaners etc.) are now ageing and in increasingly poor condition having not been replaced since before the break up of the Soviet Union and since the division of the state and collective farms, are not now always easily available to the new class of small farmer. Average wheat yields, which in the early 1990s were still quoted at between 3.5 and 4 tonnes per hectare on irrigated land, have fallen to an average of 2.0 tonnes and even less per hectare, nearer to the previous average for rainfed wheat. TABLE 1 Comparative cropped
areas '000 hectares 1990 to 1999 Table 2 Comparison between crop areas 1989, 1996 and 1997 between Northern and Southern Zones. North = Chui, Issyk-kul, Talas and Naryn oblasts: South = Osh, Jalalabad, Badken oblasts, in 1 000 hectares. (Source. Mott MacDonald NIRAP Report 1999)
Table 3. Yields of major crops (kg/ha) 1990 to 1998
Note: Official statistics are still being gathered according to methods
little changed since the Soviet era. Since 1993 the prices of most agricultural commodities have risen in real terms, in particular that of meat. (Table 4.0). The significant exception is wool which has consistently fallen following the international trend. In Kyrgyzstan the general quality of wool has also deteriorated considerably since the privatisation and break up of the state flocks. Though some cash marketing occurs, in particular for cotton and tobacco and through local bazaars for vegetables, fruits, meat and dairy products, most agricultural trade and exchange is by barter, although commodities are exchanged at a nominal cash value. Commonly, diesel, fertiliser and other inputs, if available, are procured in exchange for grain, or crops such as potatoes and onions. Sugar beet growers are generally paid by the factories in bags of sugar rather than cash. Even the settlement of international debts is carried out through barter and Kyrgyzstan regularly pays its gas bills to Uzbekistan in grain. The present system of agricultural taxation tends to encourage the perpetuation of barter. As one example, from many, it is reported that in 1995 forty bales of hay might be bartered for two head of cattle (age and sex is not stated). Another report from 1995 quotes that in Ak-suu rayon in Issyk-kul a sheep could be bought for 3 to 4 bottles of vodka (i.e. 1.5 - 2 litres) or for 10 litres of petrol (76 octane) and a kilogram of mutton was 15 - 20 Som. In July 2000, in Chui Oblast in the summer pastures jayloo of the Suusamyr valley, a bale of hay (standard oblong bales) costs 25 Som (0.5 US$). A medium sized cow costs 8 000 Som (US$ 160) and a sheep 2 000 Som (US$ 40) live weight. A litre of vodka costs 120 Som (US$ 2.4 / litre. depending on brand). In the capital, Bishkek, a kilogram of best quality mutton currently costs 100 Som / kg (US$ 2.0) and a litre of petrol (76 octane) 15 Som (US$ 0.33). Wheat prices (in real terms) which were low in 1994 at approximately 0.6 Som/kg (0.07 US$) in 1999 had risen to 2.21 Som / kg (0.14 US$). Mutton prices, though very low in the early 1990s, rose steeply after 1994 from 14.88 Som /kg (US$ 1.47) to a peak of 32.91 Som (US$ 3.39), but levelled out to between US$ 2.0 and 2.30 in 1997 / 98, falling back in 1999 to an average of US$ 1.6 in the capital Bishkek. In the first half of 2000, better quality mutton has been selling for about US$ 2.0 in Bishkek, though the average is still about US $ 1.6 to 1.7 / kg. Table 4 National Average. Agricultural Commodity Prices 1993 to 1999 Expressed in US$ / kilogram
Table 5. Average Meat Prices Bishkek and Osh 1995 to 2000 Kyrgyz Som / US$ Equivalent / Kg
1.8 Land and Agrarian Reform and Policy Since 1993 the government policy on land and agrarian reform has aimed at the privatisation of land and the break up of the collectives. This is well advanced and by the end of 1999, with the issue of about 511 000 land certificates, is almost complete. The remnant of the state institute, research, seed and breeding farms are also (in the year 2000) being broken up and privatised. Some 25% of agricultural land has been retained as part of a 'State Land Fund', available for leasehold, subject to auction. State herds and flocks were among the first items to be divided and privatised starting as early as the mid 1980s. In the interests of equity, regardless of experience or skill in agriculture and livestock husbandry, both land and livestock have been divided between all the members of the old collectives young and old, men and women. The land has been parcelled out in very small units, generally in fractions of a hectare, leaving the new land holders to work out their farming systems as best they can as individual farmers or as partners and/or shareholders in smaller or larger agricultural units or peasant farms- krestianski xezaystva. Distribution of the old farms' assets in terms of buildings, plant and machinery have posed a greater problem in terms of the equity of division. There are many different variants but the result is that many small holders find difficulty in getting access to machinery, or remain very dependant on the rump of the old farm management that have retained control of these assets. In some instances members of the old collectives have elected to retain the old farm management structure and the assets intact, as shareholders in Agricultural Co-operatives. Initially agricultural land was parcelled out as ninety nine year leaseholds but in 1998 this was changed to freehold, subject to a moratorium of five years on the free sale of agricultural land. At the present time strong moves are afoot to lift the moratorium as soon as possible. This is likely to occur in the very near future although many issues remain unresolved and opinions are divided as to the wisdom of this move. Land previously or currently sown to fodder crops, is classed as
agricultural and subject to privatisation. Most natural pasture and
hay meadows are still under state ownership although individual communities
representing the members of previous collectives have rights of usage.
Some 'new' private farmers have acquired title to old livestock units
including pasture and meadow land, usually on the fringes of the old
farms. The question of the future usage of grazing lands is under
review and a new system of lease-holding is being developed. Only the irrigable soils of high potential have been studied in detail. According to FAO/UNESCO classification the soils of the Ferghana valley in the south are Calcic Xerosols; those of the Chui valley are Calcaric Gleysols and those of Naryn Oblast in the central highlands are Humic Cambisols. In the mountain tracts Lithosols and outcrops of rock debris occur while the plateau-like surfaces are characterised by Yermosols, especially Takyric Yermosols; plateaux may be covered with loess-like loams. Kyrgyzstan is dominated by the Tien Shan mountains that lie in a series of dramatic parallel ranges running west to east of which the greater part are within the Republic and which divide the country into three main zones. Ninety four percent of the Republic is above 1 000 metres, with an average altitude of 2 750 metres and more than 40% over 3 000 metres of which three-quarters are under permanent snow and ice. The highest peaks rise to over 7 400 metres in a knot of mountains on the eastern border with China. The Northern zone includes the Talas and Chu river valleys which mark the southern edge of the great Kazakh steppe, which stretches for hundreds of kilometres to the north. It includes the upland tectonic basin, at 1 600 metres, which cradles the lake of Issyk-kul (the warm lake). Almost 700 metres deep, 170 km long and 70 km wide (at its widest) Issyk-kul is the second largest alpine lake in the World (after lake Titicaca in Peru/Bolivia), large enough to create its own local weather patterns. The Southern zone is marked by a fringe of rich agricultural lowlands in the Ferghana valley centred on the towns of Osh and Jalalabad, held in a scissors grip of mountains between the Pamir Alay in the south, and the western Tien Shan and Ferghana ranges to the North and East. The Central zone - the main body of the country comprises a vast alpine area of rugged mountain ranges, glaciers, snow fields, high river valleys, upland steppe and alpine and sub-alpine pastures and meadows.
Together with the grazing lands, water resources comprise
the most valuable natural assets of the Republic. The Tien Shan highlands
are the source of some of the most significant river systems watering
the surrounding steppes and deserts of Central Asia. The Naryn and
the Kara Darya; their tributaries and many other streams and rivers,
rising in the central Tien Shan, the Ferghana and Alay ranges, form
the main head waters of the Syr Darya (the Jaxartes)
and have supported irrigated agriculture in the Ferghana valley since
ancient times. The Kyzyl Su (Surkh Ab) rising in the mountains of
the Pamir Alay flows into the rich Garm valley in Tajikistan and onwards
to form an important tributary of the Amu Darya (the Oxus).
Before they were excessively canalised under the Soviet Union, both
river systems drained freely into the now much diminished Aral Sea.
The Chu river also rising in the central Tien Shan, together with
its numerous tributary streams, flows north into the Kazakh steppe,
as does the Talas river. The Kara Su rising among the glaciers and
perpetual snows of the eastern Tien Shan and the Ak Say flowing out
of the Chatyr Kol (lake) on the Chinese frontier drain south into
the Tarim Basin of western China. These river systems were extensively
developed in Soviet times both for hydroelectricity and irrigation.
3. CLIMATE AND AGRO-ECOLOGICAL ZONES The climate is continental, with cold winters and hot summers, but with great local variations depending on altitude, aspect and the lie of the mountain ranges. In July, average temperatures at lower elevations are generally round about 27o C but can exceed 40o C, while at the same time at 3 000 m. temperatures may not exceed 10o C. In winter, frost occurs in all regions. Precipitation is highest in the high mountains, falling mainly as snow, with a maximum of 1 000 mm along the fringe of the Ferghana valley. However, some highland valleys remain almost free of snow even in the hardest winters due to their position in relation to the surrounding ranges and provide wintering grounds for livestock at higher elevations than might be expected. In the Talas valley in the north-west, precipitation varies from 250 mm to 500 mm. In Issyk-kul there is a considerable difference between the western end of the lake which only receives an average of 200 mm and the eastern end which can receives up to 600 mm a year. Rain and snow occur mainly in the autumn and winter but sometimes well into the spring, until late May or even early June. Summers are generally dry but storms of heavy rain, hail and even snow occur, even in mid-summer and even at lower altitudes. Evaporation in key irrigated areas can vary between 1 200 mm and 1 600 mm, far exceeding average precipitation. Due to the current rate of evaporation lake Issyk-kul has no outlet, despite the many small rivers and streams flowing into it, though in past ages it once had an outflow into the Chu river. The level of the lake is known to have been subject to considerable fluctuations. The vegetation in Kyrgyzstan is classified vertically into three belts: The first and the lowest of these lies below 1 500 metres and was historically dominated by grass steppe, with marshes and reed-beds along rivers such as the Chu. Much of this, particularly where irrigation has been developed and the land drained, is now under settled agriculture, except in areas which are too arid or the gradient too steep. In the south-west on the fringes of Ferghana where there is higher precipitation along the mountain slopes relic ancient fruit and nut forests occur. The second belt between 1 500 and 3 000 metres is mainly open mountain grasslands and scrub, with some broadleaf and conifer forest, depending on the location and configuration of the mountain ranges and valleys up to a tree line that never exceeds 3 000 metres. The third and highest belt above 3 000 metres comprises alpine grassland and sub-alpine meadows, intercalated with permanent snow-fields, glaciers and rocks. Forests: Forest cover including dense shrub-land is estimated at 8 430 km2, of which 1 016 km2 are plantations. This is 4.2% of the country or less than 8% of the manageable land area. Most of the forests are between 1 200 and 2 400 metres. Jalalabad Oblast has the greatest forest cover (9.0%) followed by Osh (5.1%), Talas (3.6%), Issyk-kul (2.7%), Naryn (2.2%) and Chui (2.1%.) Natural forests contain 120 woody species. On the northern ranges the most significant are: spruce (Picea schrenkiana), several junipers (Juniperus spp), rowan (Sorbus tianschanica) and birch (Betula spp), with bushy scrub of Barberry (Berberis spp), Wild Rose (Rosa spp), Buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides),Caragana spp and others. In the western Tien Shan, in the drier more protected areas, pistachio (Pistaciavera), is a significant species with stands of wild almond (Prunus amygdalus). In the wetter areas, particularly on the southern slopes overlooking Ferghana some of the most significant relic forests of walnut (Juglans regia), left in the world are found and of various wild fruit tree species( Malus, Pyrus and Prunus spp), as well as other hard woods such as Maple (Acer turkestanica). In the last thirty years it is estimated that forest cover has been reduced by at least 50%. Historically it was undoubtedly much greater. Much timber was felled during the Second World War and centuries of grazing have taken their toll. Forest lands are still controlled by the state through the Forest Department and at the local level through leskhoz which are responsible for the protection and management of the areas under their control. They operate as production units, including the sale and processing of timber, replanting and nurseries and the exploitation of other non-wood forest products such as nuts, wild fruits and edible fungi. The leskhoz incorporate the local populations and their livestock as well as grazing land and pasture within their boundaries. The diversity of the ecosystems of the main Tien Shan range is naturally
high due to the many micro climates and landscape types, with elevations
varying from 400 to 7 439 metres and habitats including desert and
open steppe, high grass lands, broadleaf and coniferous forest, alpine
ecosystems and a variety of aquatic habitats, wet-lands, perennial
and intermittent streams, rivers, fresh and saline lakes, including
lake Issyk-kul. The western Tien Shan has the broadest range of ecosystems
(22 out of 24 classes); followed by the Inner Tien Shan (18 classes
out of 24); the Alay and the Northern Tien Shan (16 classes) and the
Issyk-kul Basin and the Central Tien Shan regions (12 classes each).
As a result species diversity is also naturally high, with well over
500 species of vertebrates, including 83 mammals, 368 reptiles, 745
fishes along with 2 000 species of fungi, at least 3 000 species of
insect and over 4 500 species of higher plants. Many species are endemic
either to Kyrgyzstan or to Central Asia. Kyrgyzstan boasts a greater
diversity than its neighbours. However, for many years now the environment
has been subjected to severe human pressure and about 10 % of the
mammal and avian species are listed as endangered. The official 'Red
Data Book' published in 1985 list the following: 65 plants, 13 mammals
-including some world renowned species such as the snow leopard (Panthea
uncia) and Marco Polo's sheep (Ovis ammon polii),
33 birds, three reptiles, two fishes and 18 insect species. This is
certainly an under estimate. A network of protected areas does officially
exist. This includes 5 zapovedniki (strictly preserved areas),
two national parks and 70 zakazniki (other protected areas).
These cover a total area of 558 700 ha or 2.7% of the total country.
Many of these areas are too small to maintain viable populations of
plants or wild life within their boundaries and despite considerable
international interest in the area, there is a lack of funds to provide
adequate of management and control. 4. RUMINANT LIVESTOCK PRODUCTION SYSTEMS Before collectivisation, traditional livestock management practices were based on transhumance and hardy land races. Under the Soviet system most livestock belonged to the State, as the property of collectives: individual herders might own up to ten sheep, a cow, a horse and a goat or two. Livestock production developed in two directions. Intensive production for meat and milk was based on home-grown fodder and grain in the form of lucerne, maize (grain and silage) and barley, supplemented by cheap concentrate feed from elsewhere in the USSR. Extensive sheep herding was based on transhumant grazing with a strong emphasis on fine wool production but heavily supported with supplementary feed and services, of all kinds including winter housing. Starting in the 1940s and increasing steadily over the next thirty years, Kirgizia became a wool farm for the USSR and a number of highly specialised fine and semi fine-wool breeds such as the Kyrgyz Fine Fleece Tonkorunnaya and the Tien Shan Semi-fine Fleece Tien Shanskaya, were developed based on the Merino, the Lincoln and others crossed with native breeds. In Kyrgyzstanseven distinct breeds of sheep are recognised [see box] Though broadly adapted to the local conditions the new breeds were more dependant on winter housing and supplementary winter feed than the traditional ones. During this time the dominant characteristic of the original indigenous fat-tail and-fat-rump, coarse wool sheep was changed to merino type fine wool breeds. None the less a number of the indigenous breeds such as the Kyrghyz Coarse Wool Fat-tail and the Hissar (sic Gissar) Fat-rump were retained and even 'improved' though in reduced numbers. Mutton from the indigenous types is generally preferred by the local Asiatic population. The skills of the Kyrgyz as herdsmen and shepherds with their pastoral and transhumance traditions were used by the Soviet Union in this development under central control and planning and maintained with heavy state support.
Under the traditional nomadic tribal systems droughts severe snow storms and other natural phenomena occurring every four to five years resulted in regular heavy losses of stock which also helped to maintain the natural balance on the pastures, as did their customs of seasonal pasture use. The emphasis on fine wool production led to a sustained effort to increase flock numbers through increasing fodder production, supplemented by imported concentrate feed in the winter. Additional support was provided by the development of a network of access roads, watering points, winter housing, transport and a full range of social and cultural support services for the herding communities, even on the most distant high summer pastures. This had the desired effect of reducing losses and increasing production, but by the 1970s and 1980s only 50% of feed requirements were being met from the grazing land. By the early 1960s permanent over-stocking had been established as the normal state of affairs at almost all locations in the seasonal grazing cycle, exceeding the natural carrying capacity of the mountains by between two and two and a half times. In 1913 it is estimated (though opinions on this differ somewhat), the area of modern Kyrgyzstan carried about 2 800 000 head of sheep. By 1989 this had increased to an official figure of 10 500 000 sheep. If the number of privately owned animals is added the true figure was probably between 14 000 000 and 15 000 000 head of sheep alone. This came to an abrupt end when Kyrgyzstan became independent. Since 1991 sheep numbers, though not of other types of ruminant stock (except yaks) or horses, have declined dramatically to its present official figure of 3 300 000, although by some estimates it may be closer to 2 500 000. (see Table 6) For details of some of the challenges facing sheep herders up to 1995 see the on-line ODI Pastoral Development Network paper The Kyrgyz sheep herders at a crossroads Table 6. Stock numbers 1990 to 1999 ('000 head)
Note: Official stock figures are taken in January, before the main spring birthing. Previously official stock numbers reflected the 'state owned' herds and flocks, without the individually owned animals so that the figures for the years 1990 /92 were almost certainly higher than recorded here, especially in respect of sheep. Source: Kyrgyzstan GoskomStat Table 7. Stock numbers 2000-2005 (,000 head) FAOSTAT 2006
FAOSTAT data for the years 2000-2005 (see Table 7) confirms the steady decline in sheep numbers while goat and horse numbers have increased. Data for cattle show increases but as numbers are well above the 1990-1999 Kyrgyzstan GoskomStat figures (and the Yak population cannot account for the difference) the cattle data needs further scrutiny. Comparatively few collectives have kept their management structures and scale of operations intact. Those that have, have generally done so under the guise of becoming Agricultural Co-operatives. Starting in the early 1990s most large intensive livestock units, whether dairy units, beef feed lots, or poultry ceased to operate as the supply of imported feed was cut off. Only a few dairy units still remain with yarded herds (usually of black and white breeds) under zero grazing. Large commercial sheep flocks are now the exception, the present norm being family ownership of small numbers of sheep under subsistence conditions. Some of the farms that have managed to retain large flocks of sheep are now, however, leading the way in terms of breeding policies and programmes that reflect the new economic circumstances. Each collective had specialist technical staff. The division and privatisation of these units has left the new peasant farmers without technical support, including veterinary care and breeding management although efforts are being made to develop an effective agricultural extension and advisory service with donor assistance in the form of the Rural Advisory and Development Service (RADS). A start has been made to encourage farmer-based breeding, production and marketing groups, with the formation of the Kyrgyz Sheep Breeders Association (KSBA). The Government currently lacks funds to provide any effective state services and a private veterinary service has been very slow to develop. For most of the past ten years there have been few funds to support the Republic's Scientific and Industrial Union for Fodder and Pastures (RSIU), or its successor The State Institute for Land Conservation and Management Gyprozem or the Research activities of the National Pasture and Fodder Institute (NPFI). The construction and maintenance of access roads and watering points, machinery for cultivation, silage and hay making, pasture rehabilitation and running cultural centres, which in the past provided various facilities for herdsmen and their families when taking their flocks to the remoter summer pastures are no longer funded. Much of the rural infrastructure developed in the 1970s and 1980s, particularly in the high mountains, has collapsed or is rapidly disintegrating from neglect and lack of funds for maintenance. Since 1992 there has been a lack of basic agricultural inputs. Farm machinery is now often unavailable to the generality of small peasant farmers, or is in increasingly poor repair. In the poorer, more mountainous areas, haymaking has increasingly reverted to traditional methods, using the scythe, the rake and the pitch-fork. 4.3 Reasons for the rapid decline in sheep numbers The previous emphasis on fine wool production has proved unsustainable, with international wool prices in long term decline and the quality of Kyrgyz wool deteriorating still faster. Advantage has still to be taken of local manufacturing capacity though this remains an option, albeit comparatively limited. Once state support and a guaranteed market in the USSR ceased to be a reality, wool production quickly lost its position as the mainstay of the Kyrgyz agricultural economy. The flocks which were distributed to members of the collectives included large numbers of wethers and old ewes, which were the first to be eaten or sold. However, a feature of the last ten years has also been the large numbers of breeding ewes and even younger females that have been slaughtered. Cash has been in short supply, the meat market good and the wool market moribund. It has been difficult for families to feed animals through the winter and there is a shortage of good winter pastures near to the settlements. Herding small numbers of sheep is costly and inefficient and most of the summer pastures are very far from settlements. Community shepherding has not developed to any significant extent. Where previously whole communities with their collectives’ flocks, but well supported by the State, would spend three to four months in the summer on the jayloo, comparatively few families are now prepared to do so unsupported. 4.4 Herding Habits and Grazing Pressure As the sheep population has declined the pressure on the more distant summer pastures has lifted. In addition there is now little or no inter-state movement of stock from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan to summer in the Kyrgyz highlands as national frontiers consolidate and political relations between the Republics deteriorate. Previously 3 000 km2 of summer pasture in Osh Oblast alone was leased to herders from Uzbekistan. Now the Kyrgyz-Uzbek border is virtually closed due to deteriorating interstate relations, and from fear of political insurgents operating through Kyrgyz territory. While pressure on the more distant summer pastures has lifted, pressure on the winter as well as those traditional spring and autumn pastures within easy distance of settlements is very severe, indeed often greater than before. This reflects the present preference for a sedentary life over that of migratory herdsmen by the vast majority of the rural population, including the previously nomadic Kyrgyz. Privatisation of state-owned sheep started in the mid 1980s. Between 1985 and 1993 collectives’ sheep flocks were reduced from 8 700 000 head to 4 200 000 head, while at the same time privately owned stock increased from 1 500 000 to 4 600 000 head. This immediately increased the year-round grazing pressure on the pastures closest to settlements as private herders ceased to move their animals to the distant summer pastures in the higher ranges. 4.5 Changes in Livestock Preference The altered socio-economic conditions has brought about a change in livestock preference, away from sheep to cattle and horses. Cattle numbers, particularly of the hardy improved native type of brown Ala Tau, ('improved' with a dash of Brown Swiss and Jersey blood), have remained stable and probably increased as sheep numbers have fallen. Intensively managed dairy herds have been replaced by family house-cows as part of the tendency towards subsistence agriculture. These are generally herded communally though seldom grazing very far from the settlements. Owning a cow or two with their followers is common to all rural families regardless of ethnic background, thus the total number of cattle has remained stable since independence. Milk, if in surplus to family requirements, is often sold fresh in the local towns and settlements, or processed in some form or other. Several internationally funded projects supporting rural dairy processing plants and cheese factories have been established in recent years based on family cow ownership. The potential for developing a dairy and beef industry in the country based on the family cow and community herding remains considerable, even though at present milk yields tend to be low (1 500 to 2 000 kg pa), with alternate year calving. Shortage of winter feed makes off-season milking difficult to sustain and also means that bull calves are now generally slaughtered at between 3 to 4 months, though some are bought at this age by graziers, if available, and grown out on summer pastures to be slaughtered in the autumn at eight or nine months.[The Ala Tau now make up about 85% of the cattle in Kyrghyzstan. A native type graded up with infusions of Brown Swiss and Jersey blood from importations dating back to the 1930s. The Aleatinsky which make up about 10% of the cattle in the Republic are black and white graded up from Friesian / Holstein imports. Some unimproved native cattle still exist in remoter districts]. Goat numbers have remained stable or may have increased for the same reason (according to FAO data there has been a significant increase), as a source of domestic milk and fibre (angora and cashmere). There is little local tradition of milking ewes, and the Kyrgyz traditionally make little or no cheese or yoghurt, favouring koumiss or, fermentedmare's milk. Ewe-milking was discouraged in Soviet times and the fine wool breeds are poor milkers compared to the indigenous fat-tail sheep. This does not apply so much to other ethnic groups in particular the Uzbeks, Uigurs, Turks, Kurds, Tartars and the other Caucasian groups, who do make yoghurt and cheese to some extent, mainly using cow milk but also goat and sheep milk. The potential for yak raising is referred to in many reports and yak meat is highly regarded but the number of yaks has decreased, from an estimated 57 700 in 1990 to just under 17 000 head in 1999 after the privatisation and division of the collective herds. Yaks are much more environmentally specific than other stock being confined to the higher and more inhospitable mountain valleys where few people, even the Kyrgyz, are now prepared to live for twelve months of the year. Interest in horses has increased and horse numbers continue to rise. Horses are valued by the Kyrgyz as a source of meat, milk, transport and sport (long distance racing and olak tartu,- a team game similar to the Afghan buz keshi, played with a dead goat or calf), but not for ploughing or cultivation, though for raking hay. Horse numbers may be higher than the official figures. The low cost of herding and feeding horses and the popularity of horse meat and koumiss make them an attractive proposition for many, particularly rural Kyrgyz. The Soviet restriction on the private ownership of horses no longer applies and there is traditional prestige in horse ownership in Kyrgyz culture, even among urban families. Horses play an important part in many Kyrgyz domestic 'events'. In particular, funerals demand the slaughter of horses, an ancient tradition of the nomad horsemen of the steppe, (viz. the frozen graves of Pazyryk in the Altay Autonomous Republic in Siberia: circa 600 BC). 4.6 Sheep Breeding Trends and Sheep Breeding Policy With the collapse of the fine wool market and the high price of meat, farmers are changing from Kyrghyz fine-fleece and other fine / semi-fine-fleece type of sheep to traditional fat-tail and fat-rump, coarse, coloured wool types, which survive on poorer pastures and lower quality fodder and produce a preferred quality of mutton. The return to the indigenous type of sheep is occurring by default rather than as part of any deliberate breeding policy and the result is an untidy mess of mongrel sheep. There are notable exceptions, however, where directors of former collectives have retained management control over sizeable flocks and some semblance of the old management structure. Some forward thinking farm directors are deliberately breeding their ewes to fat-tail / fat-rump rams using breeds such as the Hissar. Some pure bred fine, white wool flocks remain and have their passionate advocates. In 1998 several hundred pure bred Merinos, ewes and rams, were imported from Australia, under a World Bank Project, to 'improve local stock'. This met with considerable, vocal local criticism and its long term results and benefits have still to be assessed. The national breeding policy is hotly debated between traditionalists who wish to retain a programme based on fine wool breeds and those who wish to ignore wool quality and concentrate on meat production and a return to fat-tail / fat-rump types. In the centre are those who recommend a compromise between the two lines of thought and as far as possible wish to combine meat and wool quality in any breeding policy, based on a quite sophisticated system of cross breeding, which though it appears to have merit in theory may prove rather more difficult to implement in practice, under present conditions. In reality the implementation of any national breeding policy will be extremely difficult, with the effective collapse of the state breeding farms for want of funds, and an infinity of small private flocks. Market forces will probably dictate its direction, regardless of the arguments of academics. Table 8. Number of sheep breeding co-operatives and farms.
Note: In 2000 all remaining breeding farms are being broken up and privatised under L&AR Source: MAWR data for 1997 Collective, traditional responsibility for managing and herding livestock was taken away from the Kyrghyz clans and the 'khans' during the 1930s and 40s. The legacy of this remains today. Though the communal herding of house cows and their followers by village herdsman is generally customary in most rural villages, regardless of ethnic origin of the community, the case with sheep herding is generally different. The actual herdsmen are often ethic Kyrghyz. When they were privatised the state-owned sheep flocks were broken into innumerable lots, a few head to each family, and since then the practice of community shepherding has not developed to any extent even among the Kyrgyz. This has been an important factor in the rapid decline of sheep numbers and the demise of transhumance management. There are dangers that the local oblast and rayon administrations akimyat and the local 'Village Governments' ayil okmutu, (which are an arm of local administration rather than elected community representative bodies) may take more of the management of seasonal grazing lands into their own hands and out of the hands of the local stock owners and herdsmen. Much will depend on how the new laws relating to the leasing of pastures and grazing-lands which are currently under review in Parliament, are drafted. 4.8 The Future of Sheep Herding Reports in 1995 confidently predicted that the decline in sheep numbers after 1991 was the result of a wave of 'panic sales' that would soon be reversed in response to rising meat prices and a combination of local and export demand. This has not occurred, yet, though it may still happen, particularly if encouraged by new laws relating to renting grazing land. The possibility certainly exists that private entrepreneurs, with access to capital and foreign markets, may in future seize the opportunity to become large scale graziers and take long term leases on sizeable tracts of rangeland in the Tien Shan. As yet, however, there is little evidence of this happening. It remains a possibility, if the new legal framework being developed favours this development, in which case there might be some danger of the rural communities losing their traditional grazing rights. There is some evidence, however, that sheep numbers have bottomed out at between 2 500 000 and 3 500 000 head, but at that level there are hardly enough animals of breeding age to satisfy the local demand, let alone exports. There is little or no surplus cash in the rural economy and poor
rural families, even among the traditionally meat / mutton eating
Kyrgyz, increasingly survive on diets in which meat has become a luxury.
The domestic urban market for meat is limited and an export market,
to the Central Asian Republics or to more distant wealthier markets
such as the Arab States and Iran, has yet to develop. The pasture area, estimated at some 89 000 km2 (see Table 9), consists of 39 000 km2 of summer pasture (above 2 500 m.), 27 000 km2 of spring-autumn pastures (between 1 500 and 2 500 m.)and 23 000 km2 of winter pastures. The summer jayloo, spring jaztoo and autumn guzdo pastures consist principally of perennial grasses and Cyperaceae, which are reasonably resilient under heavy grazing. The winter pastures -kyshtoo / kishlak [In varying forms these basically 'turkic' terms are used over a very wide geographical area from Central Asia, through Afghanistan, Iran, the Caucasus, Anatolia to the Balkans. viz. Summer quarters / pastures Kyrgyz: 'jayloo'- Afghanistan / Iran: 'yeilaq /-yaylagh', Turkey 'yayla'. Winter quarters / pastures. Kyrgyz. 'kishtoo', Uzbek / Tajik 'kishlak' (Also a village i.e. a winter settlement) / Afghanistan / Iran: 'qeshlaq '; Turkey 'kishla''. and with other local variations in pronunciation], generally closer to the settlements, are mainly crop residues and aftermaths, or perennial browse and shrubs, which are more prone to being lost if consistently and heavily grazed; though hardy, drought tolerant and cold resistant they are being replaced by woody weeds and unpalatable plants. There are supporting areas of sown, generally irrigated, fodder mainly lucerne and sainfoin and hay meadows, which may also be irrigated. In Soviet times these amounted to about 6 000 km2. of which 4 000 km2 were sown and 2 000 hay meadow. Since 1991 the area of irrigated fodder has declined, to a present estimate of 555 km2 of lucerne and sainfoin mainly due to the expanded area of wheat. Table 9. Pasture Resources in the Kyrgyz Republic
Pasture productivity declined steadily since the 1960s and by 1993 was reported to be about 300 kg/ha of dry matter, due to overstocking and poor grazing management. Productivity of the summer pastures declined from 640 kg/ha to 410 kg/ha and the spring and autumn pastures from 470 kg/ha to 270 kg/ha over the thirty years preceding 1993. The productivity of winter pastures decreased even more dramatically from 300 kg/ha to less than 100 kg/ha and encroachment of woody and unpalatable weeds affected about 50 000 km2, over 5 400 km2 had their value as grazing reduced to almost nothing. 5.1 Carrying Capacity of the Grazing Lands. The maximum carrying capacity of Kyrgyzstan’s grazing-land is estimated at 7 000 000 sheep equivalents. This includes all ruminant stock (cattle; yaks; sheep and goats) and horses (The accepted ratio is: one horse = 6 sheep: one cow or yak = 5 sheep; one goat = 0.7 sheep). Official estimates of sheep equivalents is about 8 216 000. Though sheep numbers are significantly reduced the number of 'sheep equivalent' is not when cattle and horses using the pastures and the abandonment of the outlying grazing is taken into account. Previously large numbers of cattle were managed under intensive conditions, and fewer grazed on natural pasture. The reduction of sheep numbers from 14 500 000 in the late 1980s to 3 000 000 or less should have resulted in a general and gradual improvement of all the pastures. But there has been no policy to bring stock numbers into line with the carrying capacity of the land. The mountain summer pastures, now hardly grazed at all, are under utilised, while the winter and the traditional spring and autumn pastures are hard grazed out of season all the year round. The number of cattle and horses has been maintained and may have increased. In particular, more cattle are at pasture than previously as they belong to small farmers rather than intensive units. The numbers of grazing horses is probably more than statistics indicate, as ownership is not well recorded. So stock numbers, in 'sheep units' are still higher than the carrying capacity of the grazing, and are excessive on pastures within easy walking distance of settlements. Many traditional winter, spring and autumn pastures carry twice the number of animals and for many more months of the year than they should. Almost nowhere is controlled grazing management being practised and the privatisation of herds and flocks has only increased this problem. Seasonal pastures in the Tien Shan are not based on altitude alone as many other factors influence where and when livestock were traditionally grazed throughout the year, but the description provided below is generally applicable.
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