International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples

Indigenous Peoples are the keepers of a huge part of the world’s cultural heritage, of traditional knowledge and ability to live in harmony with nature. Today, more than 476 million people around the world identify themselves as Indigenous Peoples, they inhabit 90 countries and speak almost 4 000 languages. However, they account for just 6.2 percent of the world’s population. Even if most of them live in middle-income countries, experts classify them among the most economically vulnerable groups. 

In Russia, 47 ethnic groups are classified as Indigenous Peoples. 40 Indigenous Peoples of the North, Siberia and Russia’s Far East stand out as part of this group of peoples. 

On the occasion of the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, annually celebrated on 9 August on initiative of the UN General Assembly, the FAO Liaison Office with the Russian Federation shares examples of respect for agricultural heritage and traditions of the Sakha People living in Yakutia. The source of success, as in any field, is a devotee, enthusiast, hard worker, ready to sacrifice a lot for the sake of the ultimate noble goal. Our short stories are devoted to such people. 

Kumys – a curative drink 

The Eyge farm has been breeding horses for more than ten years. According to a unique and almost forgotten recipe, mare’s milk is used to produce a traditional Yakut fermented-milk drink – the kumys.

Photo: © Yakutsk-Sakha News Agency 

Pavel Vasiliev runs the farm. His father, called Baybal Tikhonovich by the countrymen, was a top-of-class herdsman and hunter. “As long as I can remember, I always spent time with my father and tried to learn everything he did. At a young age, I already rode obstinate horses,” Pavel Vasiliev recalls.  

Seven years ago, the Vasiliev family leased a land in the Us Khatyn region. There are more than 100 horses in their farm at the moment. Two hired workers help them. “We milk mares all year round, three times a day in the open air, even in severe frosts. A horse gives about a liter of milk per milking, depending on how quickly it is milked,” farmer Vera Akimova tells about her experience. 

The technology used for making the drink is traditional – fermentation with kumys sourdough. Without sugar or other additives. The drink is curative and it is often used for preventing tuberculosis. 

Follow the link for more detailed information: https://ysia.ru/krestyanskoe-hozyajstvo-ejge-proizvodit-domashnij-kumys-po-svoemu-unikalnomu-retseptu/ 

Aksiniya Levina’s farm oasis 

An abandoned piece of land in the Kihi baha region (renamed “Voroshilov” in the Soviet times), which is located 7 km from the Kobyay village, has been revived thanks to the efforts of a caring person, Aksiniya Levina, now the head of the Voroshilov peasant farm of the Kobyaysky ulus. 

Photo: © Yakutsk-Sakha News Agency 

Aksiniya Levina has created an exemplary animal husbandry almost on a wasteland. In addition to two mechanized barns for 100 and 120 heads and another barn for 100 heads, which is still awaiting a technological upgrade, summer farms have been built, and cultivated farmland has been spread around. 

In the woods of this farm oasis, an entire residential area has been created. Two four-apartment houses, five manor-type houses for hired workers, two parking houses and a Russian sauna have been built. In addition, all residential and industrial buildings have been gasified and Internet has been provided. 

Aksiniya Levina thinks that the secret of success is simple: it has been enough to rally a team of like-minded relatives around common family values and a common goal. 

Follow the link for more detailed information: https://ysia.ru/fermerskij-oazis-aksinii-levinoj/ 

How a “novice farmer” has turned into a professional 

At the age of 19, Vitalina Popova won the “Novice Farmer” grant, repaired the barn, and purchased the necessary agricultural equipment. And she took over her parents, who since the early 2000s have been growing potatoes and cereals.

Photo: © Yakutsk-Sakha News Agency 

Parents have been getting their children used to work from childhood. “I have known for sure that farming is my life’s occupation,” an already well-known entrepreneur from the village of Chymnayi, Tattinsky District, says today. “All difficulties can be overcome if you have support. I am very grateful to my parents, brothers and sisters (there are four children in their family). This is our family business, each person makes his own contribution. For example, one of the sisters is an accountant by profession, and she does an excellent job with all annual reports.” 

Vitalina herself is like the many-armed Shiva. “I mostly work, if you will, “in the field”. I drive a tractor myself, I repair equipment, in summer, I harvest hay with my brothers. In spring, I go hunting with them. I shoot just as well as they do.” 

Now Vitalina is studying to be a veterinarian at the Arctic State Agrotechnological University. She has been a delegate to the next congress of the Association of Peasant (Individual) Farmers and Agricultural Cooperatives in Moscow. 

“It turns out that nowhere one can find such support from the state for novice farmers as in Yakutia. We have every opportunity to start and continue our business, all that is needed is the will of a person,” emphasizes the young farmer.

For more information follow the link: https://ysia.ru/vitalina-popova-fermerstvo-molodeet/

Photo: © FAO/Varvara Parilova

According to FAO recipes 

In June 2021, Yakutia joined the “Decade of Family Farming” proclaimed by the UN at the FAO initiative. On 13 May 2022, under the leadership of Deputy Prime Minister Mikhail Nikiforov, a meeting of the Coordinating Council for the implementation of the roadmap for the participation of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) in the implementation of the Global Action Plan for the United Nations Decade of Family Farming (2019-2028) was held. 

The roadmap is aimed at achieving the goal of increasing the share of peasant (individual) farmers and individual entrepreneurs in the output of agricultural production. 

The first President of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) Mikhail Nikolaev urged when preparing plans to always take into account regional characteristics, traditions and mentality, to make the most of the past experience of the republic in the development of agriculture, in particular, the family economy.

For more information follow the link: https://sakhalife.ru/vicze-premer-yakutii-selskoe-hozyajstvo-bystree-vseh-mozhet-perejti-na-importozameshhenie/ 

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Backghround 

Yakutia, the Sakha people and agriculture

Since the 15th century, the valleys in the middle reaches of the Lena River have become the cradle of the Sakha people. The traditional economic practices of the Sakha – herd horse breeding and pasture meat and dairy cattle breeding – are still the main source of income for local rural residents and play an important role in providing food to cities, especially Yakutsk, with the population of 300 000.

There are more than 200 thousand heads of herd horses on year-round grazing; the number of cattle reaches 100 thousand. Peasant and individual farms play a big role, a third of the number of horses falls on personal subsidiary plots.

The preservation of unique economic traditions has been facilitated by their adaptability to local natural conditions (in winter, cattle are kept in cowsheds – khotons) and the peculiarities of the diet of local residents, in which the proportion of high-calorie protein foods is high.

The meadows and alaas of Yakutia serve as year-round pastures for domestic horses, and in summer for cattle. The short but hot summer even makes it possible to practice farming: cereals, potatoes, vegetables ripen on permafrost soils, and fruit and melon crops are grown with due effort.

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FAO on Indigenous Peoples 

Learn more about FAO's work on indigenous peoples.