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The ethnic conflicts in Kyrgyzstan in June 2010 resulted in large impacts on the regional economy. 170 shops, six markets and more than 100 cafes and other sites were damaged or destroyed in Osh alone. Furthermore, fear of reprisals has immobilized most sectors in and outside of the metropolitan areas. Transport of goods to and from the southern regions of Kyrgyzstan and other regions of the country and neighboring countries like China, Russia and Uzbekistan, has largely stopped. This has had a severe impact on the agricultural sector, which represented 27% of GDP in 2008 and employs 46% of the working population.
The EMMA assessment in Kyrgyzstan focused on early recovery needs for four selected critical markets: wheat flour, early potatoes, CGI and cement. This report provides the findings and recommendations on early potatoes, which represent an important source of food and income for farmers in low-lying areas of Osh and Jalal-Abad oblasts. The study aimed to respond to the questions, "How has the crisis affected the early potato markets and the targeted market actors, and what implications do those effects have for the food security and livelihoods of vulnerable populations?” The EMMA team selected farmers and urban retailers as the target population. Families with damaged or destroyed houses and urban small businessmen whose shops were damaged or destroyed were not selected because those populations, although the most directly affected by the violence, were being thoroughly covered by a separate, large-scale livelihoods assessment that was happening concurrently.
The vast majority of potatoes grown in southern Kyrgyzstan come from small, family-owned and worked plots of land. Large commercial farms do exist, but they produce only a small percentage of the early potato harvest. Lack of skills and inadequate structures for irrigation, planting, harvesting and storage have all negatively impacted harvests and producers' incomes. Because the soil in most areas is exhausted, farmers have to use large amounts of fertilizer on their land in order to be able to grow their crops. Many farmers hire short-term laborers, mainly Uzbeks, for harvesting and for planting periods. The mechanisms for producers to sell to markets in Kyrgyzstan are underdeveloped, allowing middlemen to keep food prices high. Surplus potatoes are exported to neighboring countries.
The June emergency and the loss of access to important export markets has severely disrupted the early potato market system's functioning. Supply has outstripped domestic demand. A large percentage of the early potatoes has not been harvested, and is in imminent danger of spoiling in the ground. The resulting reduction in income will impact farmers’ ability to purchase inputs for the second planting season, lowering crop yields and threatening food security for the winter months. Middlemen are buying and selling at significantly reduced levels, and many consumers are afraid to patronize mixed-ethnicity market areas. Retailers are coping by hiring their own transport to source potatoes, and other vendors are setting up shop in secondary market areas or even in ethnically homogeneous enclaves.
In addition to the more obvious immediate interventions, this crisis presents an opportunity to propose longer term programming to address deeper issues, including economic opportunities for youth, fertilizer shortages, and lack of water, equipment, storage and value adding capacity. This report recommends the following interventions targeting the most vulnerable farmers to protect their livelihoods and ensure food security for the winter months: cash transfers to the most affected farmers, subsidized transportation linking farms and markets, vouchers for retailers to purchase from middlemen, cash for work for farmers to clear irrigation and other farm systems and crews to clean up markets and businesses. In addition, this report recommends the following indirect interventions to help improve market function: providing information about crops, prices, supply and demand, coupled with technical assistance and rehabilitation of irrigation systems. Finally, advocacy with the Kyrgyz, Kazak, Uzbek and Russian governments to reopen borders for trade would remove the single biggest barrier to the recovery of the potato market system.