Agriculture among the Kyrgyz

AGRICULTURE

Agriculture was an important area of economic activity for the Kyrgyz, ranking second after livestock breeding. This was facilitated by the climatic conditions: the amount of precipitation in most of the country exceeds the minimum of 400 mm per year necessary for agricultural activities, and this culture has existed since at least the Bronze Age (Ivanov, 1957; Zadneprovsky, 1997, p. 4). From the mid-16th century, during the final settlement of the Kyrgyz in the Tian Shan, agriculture began to develop among them, marking the "beginning of a profound broad process" (Petrov, 1961, pp. 86, 87). In 1825, Zibberstein reported that there was "abundance in bread" in the Issyk-Kul region (Vyatkin, 1936, p. 241), and early Russian sources noted the developed grain farming among the Kyrgyz (Voronin, Nifantiev, 1851, p. 151), as did Ch. Valikhanov (Valikhanov, 1961, p. 327).

Agriculture played an especially significant role for the Kyrgyz in the Fergana Valley, where they closely interacted with the traditionally sedentary population. However, the Kyrgyz learned to cultivate grains in high-altitude areas, as wheat and millet were grown in the Atbashy Valley at an altitude of 6,700 feet (Bezhkovich, 1973, p. 36). By the time of the peasant resettlement movement in the 1860s-1870s, a distinct agricultural culture had already formed in the Issyk-Kul and Chui Valleys and other areas of northern Kyrgyzstan (Abramzon, 1971, p. 86). With the arrival of resettled peasants, this sector of the economy began to develop rapidly. "If in 1870 less than half of the Kyrgyz in Northern Kyrgyzstan had crops, by the time of the census (1897 - A.Z.) the majority of them had already made agriculture their main occupation. Nevertheless, for part of the Kyrgyz population, it remained a secondary occupation" (Krongardt, 1989, pp. 57, 58).

The share of agriculture continued to increase rapidly from the late 19th century due to the reduction of pastures as part of them were converted into cultivated fields and the gradual transition of semi-nomads to a sedentary lifestyle. In the valleys and foothills of Kyrgyzstan, agriculture became the main occupation for some Kyrgyz, separating from livestock breeding and encroaching upon it. In mountainous and especially high-altitude areas, agriculture continued to be supplementary, merely complementing livestock breeding. Statistical data indicate an expansion of sown areas by the beginning of the 20th century. For instance, in the Pishpek district, 115,000 desyatins were sown, and in the Przhevalsk district, 49,700 desyatins. Agriculture began to play a significant role among the Kyrgyz of the Fergana Valley. In 1914, they had 39,500 desyatins of sown area on artificially irrigated lands, including 3,400 in the Osh district. The areas of sown fields on rain-fed lands also expanded. In total, in 1914, grain crops amounted to 447,500 desyatins (History of the Kyrgyz SSR, 1986, pp. 119, 120).

For most of the population, agriculture was primarily for subsistence, providing essential food products such as flour (un), crushed grain (talkan), cereals (akshak), and other types of plant food. Grains were grown in the foothills and in the lowland areas, in places where livestock wintered. In summer, after sowing the fields, herders would move to the mountains, leaving someone from their family or kin group, usually poor eghinchi, to tend to the crops. Agricultural workers, or zhatakchy, would grow the harvest and prepare feed for livestock in the amount noted by G. Lansdell, "that is necessary for consumption throughout the year and for sowing, and any surplus is usually sold very cheaply at markets" (Turdalieva, 2008, p. 169). Wealthy individuals often purchased grain and hay from zhatakchy or exchanged it for providing them with dairy and transport animals for a period of time.

In the second half of the 19th century, an increasing number of economic groups began to engage in grain farming. If during the warm season everyone moved to summer pastures (jailoo), someone would come specifically to care for the crops.

According to A. S. Bezhkovich, this can be termed predominantly nomadic agriculture (Bezhkovich, 1973, p. 37). In the early 20th century, grain farming in most of the country's territory continued to be predominantly an occupation of the poor: "...the wealthy, having sufficient livestock, do not engage in agriculture at all, leasing their lands out for a fee (urtachestvo); poorer Kyrgyz, alongside livestock breeding, also engage in agriculture; while the poor... firmly remain on the land, and for them agriculture is the only means of existence" (Kushner (Knychev), 1929, pp. 20, 21). Nevertheless, agriculture gradually began to be practiced by increasingly wealthier individuals.

Thus, in 1904, in just one volost in the territory of the present Talas region, the Kyrgyz had over 100 factory plows, indicating the increasing purchasing power of farmers (Usubaliev, 1972, p. 79).

In the Fergana Valley, agriculture increasingly took on a commercial character, aided by the development of cotton growing there (Abramzon, 1971, p. 88).

The Kyrgyz primarily sowed wheat (buudai), barley (arpa), and millet (taruu). They also cultivated vegetable and melon crops and some types of industrial crops (Attokurov, 2003, pp. 261-263). The methods of soil cultivation and crop care, irrigation techniques, harvesting and threshing of crops, and processing of grain into flour had much in common with other peoples of Central Asia and Kazakhstan. However, there were also distinctive features in agricultural practices.

The predominant type of agriculture was irrigated, although there were also rain-fed areas (kayrak). Typically, these were lands located in cool foothills, on slopes with fertile soil (Aitbaev, 1957, p. 41). The development of rain-fed agriculture was hindered by the very process of seasonal livestock breeding. In those high-altitude zones where the amount of precipitation is sufficient for non-irrigated agriculture, the growing seasons of cultivated crops almost completely coincided with the grazing season for livestock (Rakitnikov, 1960, p. 77).

Agriculture