News

Kyrgyz family stars in IMD 2014 campaign

24.11.2014

The Mountain Partnership Central Asia Hub organized for the Amanovs, a family of farmers, to visit the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) office in Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic, where they met FAO Representative DorjeeKinlay. The farmers were accompanied by Elbegzaya Batjargal, Regional Coordinator of Mountain Partnership Central Asia Hub, and Aiida Jamangulova, coordinator of  Agency of Development Initiatives  (ADI), a network of women self-help groups.

Asylkan and Saparbek Amanovs come from the village of Janbulak, located in a remote mountainous area in northern Kyrgyzstan. The photo, featuring the family, has became the face of International Mountain Day (IMD) 2014 as it has been used on all promotional materials issued by FAO headquarters in Rome. This year the theme for IMD is  “Mountain family farmers: feeding people, nurturing the planet,” and the celebration will focus on the valuable contributions of mountain family farming to livelihoods. IMD will be one of the last events in the International Year of Family Farming, as 2014 was proclaimed by the General Assembly of the United Nations.

Asylkan is a member of one out of more than 700 self-help groups, established by ADI, whose activities are aimed at women’s economic empowerment in collaboration with the World Food Programme (WFP), World Bank (WB), FAO and German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ). A network of self-help groups, ADI works with more than 5 000 households in rural areas, which are actually family farms, and facilitates their access to different ways to improve agricultural production, eradicate poverty and strengthen food security. In mountainous Kyrgyzstan there are more than 300 000 farms, the majority of which are small-scale family farms, and who produce about 90 percent of the agricultural products in the country.

Farmers residing in mountain areas have to refine ways to farm in difficult conditions. The Amanovs are among them. Living at an altitude of 2 500 metres above sea level in a cold climate that limits the vegetation period where the prevailing occupation  of local communities is cattle herding, Asylkan and her husband, Saparbek, manage to grow vegetables in an area with non-arable land and lack of irrigation water.

During the meeting at FAO they shared their mountain farming experience and their approaches to challenges. To adapt to harsh conditions, they have brought three trucks of fertile soil from the lowlands and dug a 250-metre canal from the nearest small river to provide the plot with irrigation water. Their hard work has paid off  and now they grow vegetables for own consumption and for sale. Climate resilient seeds and new knowledge and skills gained at trainings on agro technologies, provided by ADI, were of great support, said Asylkan.

Kinlaypresented Asylkan with a Diploma of Honour in acknowledgement of her contribution, along with that of other rural women, to the implementation of FAO/WFP programmes aimed at empowering women and improving food security for rural families. He congratulated her for becoming the ‘face’ of IMD 2014.

Batjargal, noting that mountain family farmers contribute to sustainable mountain development, underscored that the example the Amanovs provide demonstrates that livelihood flexibility is a key adaptation  approach for mountain farmers who depend on the weather.

“You are heroes and we are proud that your family has become the face of IMD 2014, which is of great importance to all members of the Mountain Partnership. On behalf of our members I would like to invite you to join us in an IMD celebration event that will take place at the University of Central Asia on 11 December 2014,”said Elbegzaya Batjargal.