Abstract
Abstract In the high mountain valleys of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, gravity-flow irrigation systems support the production of grains, fodder, vegetables, herbs, and fruits as well as wood for fuel and construction purposes. In the Soviet and post-Soviet periods, major changes in the organization of society and agriculture have occurred which, when combined with the effects of population growth and outmigration in recent decades, have fundamentally altered the normative and organizational arrangements that had sustained hill irrigation in the past. This article presents 2 case studies, one from the Alaikuu area of Tar Valley, Osh Province, Alai mountain range, southern Kyrgyzstan, and the other from the upper Shokhdara Valley in Gorno-Badakhshan, Pamir mountain range, eastern Tajikistan. A combination of rights and obligations form the foundation of self-managed offtake systems, the rules for which reflect existing social relationships. The importance of authority to the effective management of these syste...
Highlights
Irrigation is central to agricultural production in the high-elevation mountain valleys of the Alai in Kyrgyzstan and Pamir in Tajikistan because there is insufficient rainfall for rainfed cultivation
Vincent (1995: 36) considers offtake systems the commonest form of hill irrigation in mountain areas; they are characterized by their ability to deliver regular irrigation across a cropping season
Water rights and the attached obligations have altered significantly over time because of the colonization of new land, the increase in number of households, and changing attitudes and livelihood options, outmigration, since the collapse of the Soviet Union. In offtake systems such as Akbulung, outside Kuiotash village (Kyrgyzstan), land and water rights have been both conferred by the state and claimed by former workers; no acts of favoritism in the redistribution of land were reported in Kuiotash
Summary
Irrigation is central to agricultural production in the high-elevation mountain valleys of the Alai in Kyrgyzstan and Pamir in Tajikistan because there is insufficient rainfall for rainfed cultivation. Whereas in the Soviet period sovkhozes (state farms) and kolkhozes (collective farms) were formally responsible for water distribution and the maintenance of canals, in the post-Soviet era formal local governments have been introduced: the jamoat in Tajikistan and the aiyl okmotu in Kyrgyzstan. Both the jamoat and the aiyl okmotu are essentially federations of villages; they have limited competencies and budgets (Sehring 2009: 73). Kuiotash’s 273 households own private household plots irrigated by 8 aryks drawing water from the Chychyrkanak River, as well as plots of land at Akbulung, on top of the low-lying grass-covered hills immediately adjacent to the village (Figure 3C) and at the jailoo. The implication is that a greater burden (relative to benefit obtained) falls on those households with lesser landholdings
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