Comparative Research Design - The Politics of Water Institutional Reform in Neopatrimonial States - page 74

Mamaraimov 2007). These constraints lead to wide spread poverty and prevalence of subsis
tence production. As a result, the Kyrgyz agricultural economy is mainly a barter economy with
little cash transfer. It is assumed that a considerable share of all economic transactions is barter
trade, even if exact details and data are unavailable (Hassan et al. 2004: 30). The agrarian sector
is virtually “de capitalized” (DFID, Mott MacDonald 2003: 10 9).
This general situation could also be observed in Sokuluk Raion, where the local case study
was conducted. The main cultivation products there are sugar beets, grain, melons, beans and
graves. In addition, fruit and vegetable are grown for subsistence. Despite the relative proximi
ty of the capital, many villages do not dispose of good market access, as roads are bad and
transportation costs high. The research focused on two villages: Studencheskoe was the former
research and training farm of the Agrarian University ( Uchebnoe Khozyaystvo, UchKhoz ) and there
fore used to be a rather wealthy village in Soviet times. However, like all rural places in Kyr
gyzstan it suffered from a decline of all local facilities like the youth center, the public bath
house, the library, the kindergarten after the break down of the collective system. School and
streets are in a bad condition. Though there are some new employment opportunities (e.g.
small furniture and noodle factories), people live very poorly. On average each household
possesses 5 7 ha land. The UchKhoz still exists on a smaller scale, but nowadays is amended by
128 private farms. Studencheskoe is part of the Frunze a/o. The other three villages of the a/o
belonged to the former sovkhoz “Frunze”. After it was dissolved in 2000, now most farmers are
members of the cooperative “Altyn Talaa”. 75 The director of the cooperative is the former
director of the sovkhoz .
The second research site was the village Zhany Pakhta, located in the lower part of the
Sokuluk valley close to the border to Kazakhstan. The Ayil Okmotu of the same name consists
of 5 villages Zhany Pakhta, Zarya, Ak Kashat, Mayskoe, Mirnoe. Before the land reform, the
whole area belonged to a state breeding farm ( Semenoe Khozyaystvo, SemKhoz ), which still exists
on a smaller scale. Today, there is also an agricultural cooperative ( selskokhozyaystvennyj koopera
tiv, sk ) “Zhany Pakhta” and 113 small farms. The aiyl okmotu owns 400 ha land that is partly
rented to migrants. People here mainly cultivate cereals. Vegetables are not grown on a large
scale, as the way to the market in Bishkek is too far to make it lucrative for the farmers to sell
them. A consequence of the constraints in the agrarian sector observed in Sokuluk is that many
people do not work on their fields but let their land and only use their garden plots for some
small subsistence cultivation. Land is rented by other local farmers 76 or by businesses. They
combine many plots to huge and lucrative fields. Many migrants from the south and Tajikistan,
who came to the region only after land reform, do not possess land but rent it. 77
Tajikistan
At the time of independence, there were 362 sovkhozes and 206 kolkhozes in Tajikistan (FAO
1997). The first steps of land reform in Tajikistan date back to 1996 and 1998, when 100,000
ha land were distributed to farmers. However, a comprehensive reform program of converting
75 In the beginning it covered 800 ha land, but now it is less as farmers left the cooperative. 300 households are
members of the cooperative, which has 35 employees.
76 These may be farmers who enlarge their own fields to grow cash-crops, or newly immigrated inhabitants who do not
possess land. The latter, however, mostly rent land from the Aiyl okmotu, as it is cheaper (and usually worse) than the
private-owned land.
77 Previously, the village Zhany-Pakhta was predominantly German populated. While most Germans and many
Russians left migrants from the South of Kyrgyzstan and ethnic Kyrgyz refugees from Tajikistan moved to the village.
Today the population is about half Kyrgyz and half Russian.