The Significance of Agricultural Production Cooperative in Kyrgyzstan : Responding to the Expansion of the Individual Management Sector of Member Farmers

The continuity of agricultural production cooperatives in Kyrgyzstan with the former agricultural enterprises in terms of people, land, and equipment has allowed cooperatives to continue agricultural production from the chaotic period of post-independence land reform to the present, and has enabled the distribution of food and feed for private livestock to member farmers. Currently, the trend toward the individualization of farm households has increased due to the penetration of the market economy, and agricultural cooperatives have also expanded their operations to include contracted work for individual sectors of their members. At the same time, however, the high price of farmland and other factors have led to the withdrawal of members from the cooperative. In addition, some individual farmers have been purchasing agricultural machinery, creating a situation in which the cooperatives themselves are outsourcing work on machinery that can no longer be updated. Since agricultural cooperatives are shrinking, it is necessary to move more aggressively to attach the necessary functions to the individual management sector, which will expand further in the future.