Kezüü and Novad: A form of pastoralism in the Eastern Alai Valley, Southern Kyrgyzstan

Abstract

This study explored the daily cooperative grazing system of sheep and goats in the Alai valley, southern Kyrgyzstan, through fieldwork conducted primarily in the two subdistricts of Sary-Tash and Taldy-Suu, where 14 villages were examined: among these residents in five villages located in the east refer to the daily cooperative grazing system as kezüü, whereas residents in nine villages in the west use the term novad. Cooperative daily grazing is practised by families that possess small numbers of livestock. Three types of kezüü were found in Sary-Tash and Taldy-Suu: (1) three-seasonal, village-based; (2) two-seasonal, village-based; and (3) three-seasonal, jailoo-based (summer pasture-based). There were 5550 sheep and goats registered in Sary-Tash in 2011, among which 1981 head were grazed in the form of three-seasonal, village-based kezüü, which is practised by four groups from spring to autumn. One group of two-seasonal, village-based kezüü was also found in Sary-Tash. In Taldy-Suu, kezüü can be classified into two types: two-seasonal (spring and autumn), village-based and three-seasonal, jailoo-based. The temporal and spatial types are further diversified when the entire valley is considered, as the general field survey suggests that at least five types exist throughout the Alai Valley. The occurrence of these types is related to the situation of fodder/agricultural fields in and around the villages. The daily horizontal movement distance of kezüü, which was recorded by micro-GPS for 66 livestock, was rather small: it ranged from 6.8 to 17.3 km. The radius of the daily horizontal movement from the villages only ranged from 1.3 to 5.4 km. The major benefit of participation in the kezüü/novad system is the sharing of limited labour resources among households possessing small numbers of sheep/goats. Such reciprocal labour resource sharing in daily grazing results in the maintenance of small herds in order to form one component of the diversified pastoralism found in the Alai Valley.