Kyrgyzstan

Challenge
One of the biggest rice plantations in Burgondu Village, Kadamjai Region is irrigated by Otukchu On-Farm Canal that draws water from Soh River. Despite its high banks, the river has low level of water far from sufficient to feed Otukchu at the levels that are needed to irrigate more than 500 hectares of land adjacent rice fields. Read more »

Challenge
Kyrgyzstan experiences chronic shortages of livestock feed due to low domestic production and high cost for imported fodder. As prices for hay and fodder keep escalating each year, many farmers can not afford buying feed for their livestock. Most Kyrgyz farmers rely on the open pastures to feed their cattle in the spring and summer, and use alfalfa hay and other fodder only in winter. Because of the insufficient quantity and poor quality of feed, many cattle die from malnutrition and related disease every winter. Read more »

Challenge
Each year, Kyrgyzstan falls short by 400,000 metric tons of wheat that is needed to produce bread – one of the major staple foods in the country. One of the reasons of such chronic problem is the lack of quality seeds - Kyrgyzstan’s annual deficit of good seed is estimated at 11,000 -16,000 metric tons. Additionally, the country uses outdated, low yield wheat varieties and applies little other agricultural inputs to maximize harvests. Read more »

“USAID assistance has changed my attitude to managing the farm,” said Tatyana Belinskaya who has almost doubled milk production in her farm with USAID support. Thanks to USAID’s Kyrgyz Agro-Input Enterprise Development Project, implemented by IFDC, Belinskaya has also significantly improved the farm management and enhanced cattle health. Read more »

Challenge
Karakol, a historical city located on the far eastern tip of the Kyrgyz Republic’s scenic Issyk-Kul Lake, is often overlooked by the multitude of tourists who come to the region every year. Most tourists stop at one of the many resorts to the west of the city and never make a detour to explore Karakol.  Though the city contains Kyrgyzstan’s best examples of 19th century architecture, until Read more »

In early October, President of Kyrgyzstan Kurmanbek Bakiev bestowed the “Best Teacher of 2009” award upon a Kyrgyz participant of a USAID education program. “I owe this award to the training I received from the USAID Quality Learning Project,” said teacher Nurmiza Kenjebaeva. Read more »

“The education loan has enabled me to pursue a university degree and took care of my concerns that there won’t be enough money to pay for the studies,” says 19-year-old Ayman Arymbekova, a at the Academy of Tourism in Bishkek, where she is working towards a degree in tourism management. Arymbekova received this loan through the joint USAID and the Kyrgyz Investment and Credit Bank’s (KICB) Education Loan Program. Read more »

Yulya Protopopova is a 9th-grader at the only school in the village of Grigoryevka on the edge of Lake Issyk-Kul in the mountains of eastern Kyrgyzstan. The landscape is picturesque, but opportunities for learning are limited. Yulya’s school, like many educational facilities in rural Kyrgyzstan, suffers from a dearth of qualified teachers and modern textbooks, as well as inadequate facilities. Such difficult environment leaves little opportunity and time for the youth to learn how to tackle the political and socio-economic challenges facing Kyrgyzstan’s emerging democracy.
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Reforms undertaken by the Government of Kyrgyzstan with the support of USAID are improving the country’s environment for international trade. Kyrgyzstan faces numerous impediments to international trade, including onerous customs procedures and physical distance from ports and markets. Until recently, entrepreneurs trading goods across Kyrgyzstan’s borders had to file 13 documents for each transaction, among the highest number in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. To speed up the process, traders often hired specialized companies to help prepare all the required documentation. Read more »

Challenge
“The long process of getting certificates of sale from the local government really inhibited my business,” says  Azamat Asanaliev, a livestock trader living in Luxemburg rural municipality who needs to update his livestock data four times a month – each time he go to the local market. Unfortunately for Asanaliev and other residents, all records in Luxemburg rural municipality were until recently kept in 39 huge paper ledgers. Municipal secretary would spend hours leafing through these Read more »