Agriculture is the most important sector in the Kyrgyzstan’s national economy, employing 31 percent of labor and this sector has accounted for only 15.2 percent of the gross domestic product in 2014.

In 1995, agriculture accounted for about 40 percent of the GDP but by 2012, this percentage had declined to a low of 15.2 percent. About 65 percent of the population lives in rural areas, and of those people two-thirds are estimated to be living in poverty. The development of agriculture plays an important role in a country. Therefore, this study investigates to understand better and be familiar with the current status of Kyrgyzstan’s agriculture.

BACKGROUND OF STUDY

The landlocked, mountainous, and unpopulated Kyrgyzstan borders Uzbekistan to the southwest, Kazakhstan to the north and northwest, Tajikistan to the south, and China to the southeast (Fig. 1). Kyrgyzstan has a total land area of 199,951 km². Almost 90 percent of Kyrgyzstan’s total territory is located higher than 1,500 meters above sea level. As of January 1, 2014 the country’s resident population was 5.8 million people. About one third of the population lives in cities with the remaining people residing in rural areas. The average density of the population stands at about 27 people per square kilometer.1)

Kyrgyzstan has a continental climate with cold winters and warm summers. Also, the weather has great local variations depending on the altitude. The average temperatures in July at lower elevations are from 27°C to 40°C, but areas above 3,000 m may not exceed 10°C. In January, frost occurs in almost all regions. In the highlands, the temperature ranges from between –20°C to –40°C in some mountain valleys. Though Kyrgyzstan is a fairly dry country, there are occasional heavy snowfalls in winter. Kyrgyzstan’s annual precipitation is about 250 to 280 millimeters, arriving from the west.2)

Kyrgyzstan has made substantial progress in its transformation from a planned to a market economy in the past quarter of a century. However, the agriculture sector continues to face serious infrastructural issues including a low demand for agriculture products due to the Central Asian region’s low population. Kyrgyzstan’s mountainous and landlocked geography also makes transportation expensive and practically challenging.

The most important agriculture problems farmers face include: 1) Difficulties in output due to a small market 2) Unfavorable prices 3) Lack of rural credit 4) Shortages of fuel and machinery 5) Lack of fertilizers and 6) Irrigation water supply problems.

Compared to other Central Asian countries, Kyrgyzstan’s land reform was successful and by 1995 about 75 percent of all agricultural land had been distributed to individuals living in rural areas. From 1996, agricultural GDP rose by 60 percent due to an emphasis on high value crops, such as cotton and potatoes. National food security requirements also led to a considerable expansion of grains, including wheat and animal feed crops3). However, the agriculture’s contribution to GDP, despite remaining the backbone of the economy, is declining. Irrigated agriculture is a key to increasing income, reducing poverty, and improving food security. Food insecurity is chronic, affecting the rural population, leading to poverty, low agricultural productivity, and poor food consumption.

CURRENT STATUS OF KYRGYZSTAN’S AGRICULTURE

Kyrgyzstan’s Agriculture

Agriculture is the nation’s main economic activity. According to the National Statistics Committee of Kyrgyzstan, agricultural shares of the GDP were only at 15.2 percent. In 1990/1991, at the beginning of the reform, its percentage were at 32 percent and in 1996/1997 the shares reached as high as 47 percent.

In 2014, the total sown area was 1,181.1 thousand hectares, which was only 35 thousand hectares more, compared to 2010, but compared to 1990, it decreased from 112.8 thousand ha. As Fig. 2 shows the percentages of various agriculture commodities. The share of crops (wheat, barley, maize) the area of grain has decreased by about 1.4 percent.

‘Next is the forages, its shares at 26 percent, with cotton and tobacco being usually planted in the southern regions of the country. In 2013, the regions of cotton have increased by 38 percent compared to 2009. However, the areas of tobacco decreased by 36 percent in 2013 (Table 1).

In 2013, the gross output of agriculture was 171,631 million soms, while in 2009, the output was 111,284 million soms4).

Change in Land Use

The prior Kyrgyz agriculture was organized and controlled by the state and collective farms, as well as marketing was controlled and prices were fixed by the state. However, reforms began the change from a planned to a market economy in 1991, while land reforms changed the distribution of agricultural land use among the farm types. The total sown agriculture area allocated to state and collective farms started to decline immediately upon the inception of a transition. Most of this land was shifted to peasant farms in the process of land reforms5) (Fig. 3).

A national statistical report in 2013 showed there were 374 agricultural cooperatives, 93 collective farms, 42 stock companies, 64 state farms, and 33,110 private peasant farms in the country. The output of agricultural products by farm categories has changed significantly with the development and strengthening of peasant farms. In 2013, crop production was 86,553 million soms, livestock production at 81,676 million soms, agriculture services at 3,515 million soms and the total gross output of agriculture, hunting, and forestry was valued at 171,982 million soms.

Agricultural production declined from 1990 to 1995 and rose again in 1996 and 1997. Crop production output has started to improve more than livestock production. Particularly, grain, potatoes, and vegetables have seen an increase in production, though other types of commodities remained very low due to a deficit of agriculture input.

The structure of sown the areas for agricultural crops has changed. At present, 50 percent of the total sown area was for grain crops, which in 1990 made up 41 percent. At the same time, the percentage of areas composed of feed crops decreased from 50 percent in 1990 to 26 percent in 2013. Potatoes, vegetables, and melons were below 10 percent.

Kyrgyz’s agriculture during the Soviet period was mainly specialized for livestock products. Wheat and other important food products were mainly imported from other soviet regions. Since the Soviet Union collapsed, Kyrgyzstan is still dependent on other Soviet republics. Thus, Kyrgyzstan is still focusing on food security, leading to increase the cultivation of wheat and other crops. As a result, the area sown in wheat, potatoes, and vegetables increased from 4 percent in 1990 to 12 percent in 2013.

Livestock production has declined for all types of products since 1990. The decline has been especially serious for poultry products as meat and wool production has also declined due to high input prices and the availability of animal feed during the winter months.

Changes in livestock

During the Soviet period, Kyrgyzstan was one of the main producers of livestock products. In 1989, the number of total livestock including poultry reached 28 millions (Fig. 4)6).

A few years later, after the reform was initiated, livestock numbers decreased dramatically, the total number in 1996 was only 7.5 million. At the end of the 80s, about two-fifths of all cattle were in the care of rural households, the remainder were held by state and collective farms. From 1991, large state and collective livestock farms were privatized and the flocks were distributed to members of collective and state farms. It has been difficult for individuals to feed animals through the winter due to a shortage of animal feed. Therefore, since the beginning of the 1990s, large numbers of breeding ewes have been slaughtered. As a result, the heads of cattle held by state and collective farms decreased year by year. On the other hand, the number of heads on peasant farms increased substantially (Fig. 5).

Sheep breeding was the key factor in animal husbandry. In 1985, the total number of sheep was 10.2 million heads. At the beginning of the transition, the number of sheep and goats held on state and collective farms were about 8 million, but this had declined dramatically by 1996, at which point the number was only 3.7 million. The number of sheep and goats held by peasant farms and household farms recovered slightly, reaching 5.6 million heads in 2013 (Fig. 6).

Livestock production has declined for all types of products since 1990. The decline has been particularly serious for poultry products, while meat and wool production has also declined in large part due to high costs and a low supply of feed during the winter months.

PRIMARY CHALLENGES IN KYRGYZSTAN‘S AGRICULTURE SECTOR

To analyze the problems of Kyrgyzstan’s agricultural sector, it is necessary to examine agriculture’s status during the transition period. The prior centralized and planned economy that was controlled by the old Soviet system has been gradually transformed. The new institutions designed to enable a market economy have played a central role for almost 25 years. Agricultural production declined from independence until 1995 and has showed a slow growth from 1996 until today. Kyrgyzstan has made a significant progress in implementing agricultural reform. Like other Central Asian countries, Kyrgyz’s agriculture reform has been determined by the success of the decollectivization and individualization of the land use.

After reform was initiated in 1991, large farms were distributed to private and smaller farmers. The emergence of private farming has occurred amid substantial agricultural input and output constraints, while restructuring has led to private entrepreneurship, it has been accompanied by short-term growing pains felt by inexperienced farmers in a new market economy, coupled with the burdens imposed by inappropriate machinery and inefficient water use.

Kyrgyzstan’s transition to a market economy has been obstructed by inter-republican7) trading arrangements developed during the Soviet era. Agriculture had mainly specialized in livestock production, while wheat and other important crops were imported from other soviet countries.

Kyrgyzstan’s agriculture was organized in Soviet times under a statist system of collective farming. Fixed prices characterized a system in which all productive industries were dominated by central planning. Post-Soviet reforms in 1991 abolished the collective system, and there are now over 356 thousand private farms in Kyrgyzstan.

The biggest problems faced by Kyrgyzstan’s agriculture since independence can be classified into several areas: 1) Lack of institutional frameworks of agriculturerelated organizations. 2) Lack of agricultural machinery and its effect on agricultural productivity. 3) Major problems of water use in agriculture.

Lack of institutional framework of agriculturerelated organizations

Kyrgyzstan’s agriculture has traditionally been organized under heavy state control. Markets and prices were centrally controlled. Large-scale socialist administrations managed thousands of hectares of farmlands employing most of the countries laborers8). As of November 1, 1990, there were several hundred large scale state and collective farms in Kyrgyzstan. Alongside these large farms, hundreds of thousands of rural households cultivated small plots.

From independence, Kyrgyzstan rapidly embraced free market philosophies, and set about initiating appropriate reforms to its economic infrastructure. In the name of privatization, governmental departments as well as private and semi-private organizations were launched or reorganized amid vast changes to Kyrgyzstan’s legal system.

By the mid-1990s, Kyrgyz institutions had partially adjusted to privatization, opening the door for more intensively researched policies and practices. A 1995 restructuring made all governmental agricultural organizations subsidiaries of the Ministry of Agriculture and Water Management.

Six years later in 2002, the Kyrgyz Agrarian Academy was reorganized again. The Kyrgyz Agrarian University took charge of agricultural education, along with individual agricultural colleges. All agricultural related entities were eventually placed under the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture.

The Ministry of Agriculture Water Resources and the Food-Processing Industry were created within a new division, called the Centre of Agriculture Research and Consulting Services (CARCS), which has incorporated all research institutes, stations, and public farms. The institutes within the CARCS work exclusively on research9) Previous scientists had also held teaching responsibilities, but this practice has been discontinued. Below is a figure of the current scheme of agricultural research institutions in Kyrgyzstan.

The substantial population of rural farmers required (and still do require) training and technical assistance is needed to promote their qualifications and meet the rapidly changing challenges of the world economy, coping with globalization in an information-oriented society. Some studies suggest that in newly transitioned countries, including Kyrgyzstan farmers, not only need access to land, they also need assistance in the efficient use of agriculture input within a market economy. Therefore, agricultural services in rural areas play an important role in development.

A lack of agricultural machinery sector on agricultural productivity

Kyrgyzstan is a mountainous and landlocked country, thus its economy is highly transport intensive. During Soviet times, Kyrgyzstan had a relatively developed transport network and it was well adapted to its geographical characteristics10). From the days of the Soviet breakdown, transportation and agricultural machinery have been highly dependent on other transport exporters. Farm machinery is of great importance; yet, it is in short supply, with farmers still using old deteriorated machines.

In 2013, the number of agriculture machinery in the country was as follows: 26,562 tractors, 7,259 ploughs, 2,654 seeders, 2,727 grain combine harvesters, 116 fodder choppers, 2,170 cultivators, 502 land levelers, 96 corn harvester combines, minor numbers of potato harvesters and cotton pickers11).

A lack of machinery has a significant impact on farm productivity. Wheat in particular is an most important crop for the Kyrgyz people. It is their staple food and thus plays an important role in food security.

Kazakhstan, the largest grain producer in Central Asia, discontinued exports in 2008 due to a drought-included low wheat yield that year12) This contributed to high prices in Kyrgyzstan, which were often prohibitive, particularly in poorer households. To this day, poor households spend a large percentage of their income on food.

Therefore, Kyrgyzstan’s lack of farm machinery is playing a detrimental role in its food security problems. The deficit of agriculture machinery has caused most notably the following changes:

When the agricultural machinery has become too old for use, this becomes even more serious: According to the 2003 Agricultural Census, only 9% of tractors and 14% of combine harvesters have been replaced since 199013).

Kyrgyzstan’s farm mechanization structure was inherited from the Soviet farm organization system. State-provided machinery schemes were implemented in each region according to crop specialties as determined during the collective period. At that time, there were 470 collective farms with an average arable land area of 2,590 ha. From the 1990s, land reform began in Kyrgyzstan, which resulted in farm machinery being reallocated from a few large cooperatives to many individual small farms. As a result, some of the disbanded Kolkhozes sold their machinery to neighboring countries14). The resultant small supply of farm machinery has negatively affected small individual farmers.

Major problems of water use in agriculture

Among the Central Asian countries, Kyrgyzstan is the richest in water resources. There are about 3,500 rivers related to the seven main basins Syrdarya, Amudarya, Chu, Talas, Hi, Tarim, and Lake Issy Kul. All water from these rivers flow all over Kyrgyzstan to the Central Asian states of Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, as well as to Xinjiang-Uygur autonomous region in China. There are no rivers flowing into Kyrgyzstan. Their geographical location makes these rivers among the country’s most valuable natural assets. The total irrigated area is about 806 thousand ha, or 76 percent of the country’s total area, of which about 86 thousand ha are irrigated from a regulated stream flow while 720 thousand ha are fed by a natural flow15). From March to May, the availability of water is high, but from June to August, it decreases due to the snow melting in the mountains. These kinds of natural factors cause irregular water availability for irrigated lands.

During the Soviet period, irrigation and drainage programs were planned, designed, and constructed by large socialist cooperatives. During the Soviet times, there were 140 thousand hectares designed to be irrigated with sprinklers 16). But from the 1990s, the operation of irrigation systems was not financed anymore. The former Kyrgyz Ministry of Water Resources was merged with the Ministry of Agriculture and Melioration. The canals and irrigation systems built during the soviet period had deteriorated. Pumping systems designed more than 20 years earlier required equipment changes. Because of deteriorating canals, the amount of available water had decreased; thus, irrigation became increasingly impractical17).

Due to dry weather and unreliable rainfall, only certain limited mountainous areas do not rely on managed irrigation. About 60 percent of the total arable land, including almost all tree crops, gardens and household plots, as well as permanent pastures and plantations, are irrigated. Approximately 75 percent of the total sown land is irrigated. More than 50 percent of the irrigated sown area is used for grain, with crop yields higher on irrigated land than on rain fed lands18). As a result of irrigation decline, crop yields and food provision have faced substantial handicaps.

The Water Resources Department’s report shows that over the past 25 years, the average water diversion has decreased by 36 percent, caused by the following factors:

THE POTENTIAL STRATEGIES FOR KYRGYZSTAN’S AGRICULTURE SECTOR

In 2011, self-sufficiency among main food products was as follows: Bread 62.5%, meat 57.8%, vegetable oil 34.2%, eggs 38.4%, fruits and vegetables 23.1%, and sugar 12.2%. The remaining portion of Kyrgyzstan’s food needs are met via imports19). However, Kyrgyzstan has sufficient natural resources, which if used, sustainably would boost the prosperity and result in self-sufficiency. Agriculture is the largest sector of the economy, though its percentage is only 15.2 percent. About 65 percent of the population lives in rural areas, and almost two-thirds of the rural population is below the poverty line.

More than 20 percent of the land remains unproductive. This is limited by the lack or poor conditions of irrigation systems, which demands extensive modernization. Furthermore, a lack of public advisory services has been a significant problem. Land reforms have given rise to many individual farmers. To enable a productive, efficient, and prosperous agricultural system in Kyrgyzstan, farmers require government subsidies to maintain agricultural machinery, local agricultural advisory services, and a modernization of irrigation systems.

According to World Bank estimates, Kyrgyz agricultural growth has the potential to be a key driver of poverty reduction in the country. Within Kyrgyzstan, the GDP growth originating in the agricultural sector is twice as effective in reducing poverty as the GDP growth originating outside of agriculture. More than 70 percent of Kyrgyzstan’s poor people live in rural areas20). Therefore, agricultural development plays a very important role to develop the national economy. Kyrgyzstan requires additional extensive agricultural development.

The Kyrgyz Agriculture Ministry has requested technical assistance from the FAO in the formulation of a strategy, which includes several agricultural priority sectors crucial to the future economic development.

Strengthening the agriculture-related organizations

According to the Kyrgyz agricultural ministry, we can classify Kyrgyz land reform into three phases. In the first phase (1991-1993), the government began the distribution of land to rural former collective farm members. In the second phase (1993-2004), almost 75% of arable land was distributed. During this phase, in 1998, the government created the Land Redistribution Fund. Its target was to distribute 25% of state owned land. In the last phase, from 2004 to the present, the government has resolved to enact the “concluding stage of land and agrarian reform” with the following priorities21):

The government has undertaken nation-building efforts, including the establishment of a constitution during its transition to a market economy. Kyrgyzstan has made substantial progress in every sector including agriculture. During the last decade, the Kyrgyz government has worked with International Organizations and NGOs to develop various strategies for rural development. These steps are based on deepening policy reforms which include the development of institutions, creating public investments, and implementing a substantial IT infrastructure. Despite these resolutions, the Kyrgyz government spends very little on agricultural services. Therefore, in order to continue institutional growth in agriculture and related organizations, the Kyrgyz government should focus on sewing a web of diverse farmer organizations, particularly in rural areas, with an abundance of poor households.

For agricultural producers, a centralized information service has been found to work well in a centralized economy with a small number of clients. However, in a market economy such service does not presently meet the needs of today’s large number of farmers. Current farmers need a different kind of information. They need impartial advice on legal, business, and the technical aspects of farming.

Improvement of agriculture machinery and agriculture productivity

As a result of the land reform started in the 1990s, agricultural entities privatized fixed assets of agricultural production – land and agricultural machinery. As a result, hundreds of thousands of small peasant farms were created. The average size of land holdings among peasant farms is about 2.7 hectares. Farmers in Chui Province possess the most land averaging 5.7 hectares a farmer, while farmers in Jalal-Abad Province farmers have the least amount of land with an average of 1.2 hectares.22) A recent World Bank study using data from a nationally representative household survey showed that about 80 percent of Kyrgyz individual farmers’ land holdings are less than 2 hectares (World Bank 2007). Another survey conducted by a local consulting company in Kyrgyzstan showed that almost half of the individual farmers use less than 1 hectare of the arable land, while another 40% percent use between 1 and 3 hectares (M’Vector Consulting 2007). Therefore, though farm machinery is an important aspect of farming in Kyrgyzstan, there is a substantial shortage, and the machines that do work are inefficient, energy-intensive, and poorly designed for the new small farms23). Therefore, the government has an important role in assisting private farmers. The government should encourage farmers with various credit, support leasing companies to increase the availability of farm machinery, and develop mechanical services in order to modernize and increase agricultural labor and land efficiency. Agriculture machinery production should also be encouraged in the sector, eventually implementing automation as well.Increase the effectiveness of agriculture water use Irrigation is a vital commodity, particularly in dry countries like Kyrgyzstan, as present irrigation covers about 75% of the cultivated land area in Kyrgyzstan. The major irrigated crops are cereals (mainly wheat) and fodder crops. In recent years, it has become difficult for individual farmers to operate irrigation due to deteriorating systems. According to a national report, water for all economic sectors has decreased by 36 percent compared to farms during the Soviet period. All suggested indications mentioned in the previous chapter need to be involved. The government should enlist the help of international organizations in repairing and further developing Kyrgyzstan’s water systems. The main challenge in developing a national irrigation policy is the equitable use of time, funds, and resources between regions. From 1998-2006 the Kyrgyz government working with the World Bank, developed an irrigation repair project24). One such project, the “Irrigation Rehabilitation Project”, restored 48 local and regional afflicted irrigation systems all over Kyrgyzstan. The components of this project were: 1) Rehabilitating prior and secondary irrigation systems, 2) Building the capacity of the Department of Water Management, 3) Financing of other deteriorated irrigation systems not selected by this project, and 4) Rehabilitation of a flood damaged infrastructure. Through this project many previously inoperable irrigation systems became operational again. This project has yielded substantial benefits. The results of this project has some increased farming yields. These changes are intimately tied to improvements in operating and the maintenance of water systems. However, efficient water use is still not sufficiently practiced and their remains much room for the additional development of best practices Rural areas use almost exclusively surface irrigation; this method is common among all regions. This irrigation method is defective and detrimental to the soil. Almost all of Kyrgyzstan’s water contains undesirable amounts of salt, with its soil also containing salt natively. When plants are irrigated, salts are left behind in the soil, leading to progressive accumulation. These salts need to be dissolved and leached out from the plant root by applying additional water with appropriate sprinklers and water pumps. Otherwise, too much water is released too quickly which cannot adequately leach out from the plant’s root zone25). Water use efficiencies are very low, according to the Ministry of Agriculture. 45% of the water utilized for irrigation is lost either through damaged transport systems or during application within the Soviet-era conveyance fields. In 2012, there were 502 land leveling machines, of which only 90 percent were functionally operational. Old Soviet canals were designed for large state farms, and are not suitable for small individual farmers. Thus, a modernization of irrigation systems is required with all due haste.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

After its independence, Kyrgyzstan has seen substantial progress in the distribution of agricultural land, livestock, and even agricultural machinery to rural households. In the early 1990s, government and the people could somewhat quickly adapt to its new conditions. Kyrgyzstan, with transformative agriculture reforms, initiated and created a large number of private farms. The privatization process led to various problems including a lack of machinery and agricultural services. Before the transition, all state and collective farms had centrally controlled budgets and the sufficient involvement of agrarian specialists. Since its independence, with the departure of the Soviet agricultural specialists, Kyrgyzstan’s rural farms have suffered from a lack of technical expertise which has also hampered their productivity. As in other cases of the economic sectors, the Kyrgyz agriculture industry was heavily dependent on other Soviet republics for suppling their input and imports. Therefore, an extensive development of the agriculture sector will help reduce poverty among Kyrgyzstan’s substantial impoverished rural population. A comprehensive approach to agricultural reform, focusing on agricultural machinery subsidies, local agricultural advisory services, and the modernization of irrigation systems, will enable an increased employment, food security, and economic development in Kyrgyzstan. The government should invest in agriculture development programs and extend its agricultural training services and education. The Ministry of Agriculture should develop new agricultural data, which is available for Agricultural Institutions, in order to possess more accurate research data. Agriculture institutions (Kyrgyz Agrarian University and other established organizations) should exchange agricultural knowledge with other countries whose agriculture is more developed. It should also provide appropriate information, improving their income through making agricultural input available. The agriculture sector will assist to reduce poverty. A comprehensive approach is one of the important priorities for developing its economy, by providing food and employing a large population in creating agriculture-related jobs. In the rural areas, a large agriculturally-employed population requires government expenditures to maintain rural advisory services as well as to modernize the machinery and irrigation systems in order to upgrade production efficiency.

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