Kyrgyzstan: Farmers in Distress Turn to Selling Livestock

"There are no jobs here, no money," Kalybek said, gesturing at his dwindling store of hay outside his home in Jar-Bash village. "And I have to feed and support my four children."

At the beginning of winter, Kalybek had 10 cows. So far in January, he has sold cows at a pace of about two per week. They used to produce milk that he would sell to a local cooperative. But with limited fodder, they have stopped lactating. He now has no income at all, and reports that he is having trouble keeping his home heated.

His story is not uncommon in northern Kyrgyzstan's Chui Oblast. Kanbolsun, a resident of the neighboring village of Internatsionalnoe complains the feed has trebled in price since the winter of 2007-08. "Last year, one bail of hay cost 40 soms [one dollar], this fall it cost 100 soms . . . and now it costs 120 soms. My neighbor is selling hay for 130 soms. So I sold my cow because I needed to buy coal, and some more hay for the rest of them." By the end of January, Kanbolsun says he will be forced to sell Faina, one of his three remaining heifers. On average, in winter, a cow needs one bail of hay per day.

Exacerbating already difficult times, farmers say they are prices for livestock are plummeting. "Now, a good cow costs 16,000 soms [roughly $400]. This is the most expensive kind. Last year the same cow cost 30,000 soms [$740], and hay was cheap. Kazakhs used to buy cattle from us. Now, they don't buy from us; [instead] they bring their animals to our bazaars to sell, because they too had a drought and no hay," said Kalybek.

The crisis has been years in the making, according to farmers and experts. "In Kyrgyzstan there was low precipitation over the last three years, so there was already enormous pressure on the feed base. What has worsened the situation in particular this year is the soaring cost of food," said a United Nations official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The official, an agricultural expert, worries about the long-term economic impact on some of Kyrgyzstan's poorest citizens. "People are in a desperate situation; they're really losing their economic capacity. . . . In normal years a cow produces maybe 12-15 liters [of milk] a day. Now milk production is at six liters, which makes a big difference," the expert told EurasiaNet.

"If no action is taken, people will lose parts of their herds, milk production is already significantly reduced and will probably go down, and there will probably be ? a high mortality of livestock in early spring with abortions in calving," he added. "In the long term, people might lose their economic assets; it will be extremely difficult for the small farming households and small livestock keepers to recover."

The UN has issued a Flash Appeal emergency aid request for this winter. "Soaring food and fuel prices, adverse weather conditions and declining remittances . . . limited the purchasing power of the most vulnerable, and contributed to a precarious food security situation for some," it states.

The appeal asks international donors to provide $20 million for emergency food aid, which should take some burden off smallholders unable to feed their animals. But so far, just 11 percent of the request has been received, according to UN figures reported January 22 on reliefweb.int.

"An estimated 800,000 people are considered specifically vulnerable to the effects of water, energy and food insecurity," the appeal states. Kyrgyzstan is home to roughly 5.4 million people.

Sulaiman Mamaev, head of the Livestock and Veterinary Department at the Ministry of Agriculture, denies the situation is dire. When EurasiaNet described the situation in Jar-Bash and Internatsionalnoe, he became defensive. "People say that just to pour dirt on the Ministry of Agriculture," he said. "If farmers are selling their animals, it is due to their personal and private reasons. Chui Oblast is the most successful province and it is not facing such problems."

He later acknowledged, however, that the cost of feed was an issue. "The high price of hay and drought are absolutely connected. Last summer we did not have any rain; all the hay burned because of the hot sun. We have never had such high prices for grain products. For example this year the price for one kilogram of bran was six soms, when before the price was 1.5 soms per kilogram," he said.

Mamaev indicated that the difficulties would prove fleeting. "We shouldn't be afraid of them. They will pass," he said. One way to overcome the current troubles would be to breed more cattle, despite the apparent glut in the market, Mamaev suggested.

Villagers in Chui Oblast, however, don't believe there are simple solutions to the present predicament. The problem, Kalybek says, is all related to feed: "My cows don't [eat enough to] give milk; they can't deliver babies. If they would, I wouldn't sell them."

His needs are immediate, as he and his family are already living hand-to-mouth. "I don't have an income. Now I make money by selling my cows. I bought a little bit of coal the other day. We burn it only in the evening when we are getting ready to cook," he said.