A New Breed of Development

Ibramimov says it will take only a few generations of inseminated cattle for a two-year-old calf to double its current weight of 200 kilograms. Photo: Jason Sangster for Mercy Corps

Kara Dobo, Kyrgyzstan — Veterinarian Joldosh Ibragimov doesn't exactly pine to return to the days before Kyrgyzstan gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. But he does fondly recall at least one thing about Soviet rule: big cows.

In the late 1980s, Ibragimov and colleagues at a large local cattle collective engineered muscular, milk-laden cows using artificial insemination. But the farm collapsed when the Soviet Union broke apart, and the genetic stock of the region's cattle has deteriorated steadily since.

Now Ibragimov has a plan to restore his neighbors' cows to their past heft, which he says would significantly raise incomes in a region where rearing cattle is a primary source of household revenue. His idea has been endorsed by new brand of economic development organization — a local council, organized by Mercy Corps, where representatives of Kara Dobo and six other communities meet to plot their common destiny.

Mercy Corps has helped form seven Local Economic Development Councils, or LEDCs, as part of its efforts to accelerate economic growth in a region plagued with ethnic divisions and resource conflicts. Here, Stalinist-era borders delineate a fertile farming region with absolute disregard to topography, natural resources or ethnicity.

Veterinarian Joldosh Ibragimov (right) talks with neighbor Tugrumamat Aripjanov about his plan to breed bigger, more valuable cattle. Photo: Jason Sangster for Mercy Corps

Mercy Corps' Collaborative Development Initiative, funded by USAID, tries to tackle these built-in tensions by grouping southern Kyrgyzstan's regional centers and neighboring villages according to geography and economic interests. Each of those villages elect three members to a region-wide development council. Mercy Corps helps the council organize itself into a functioning group, and gives it the technical assistance and financial resources needed to make strategic business investments. The three-year program started last fall.

So far, each LEDC has identified and prioritized their top economic-development issues, and brainstormed several projects. One group wants to start a region-wide fruit and vegetable crop-protection program, for example, while another is organizing a sour-cherry marketing cooperative. Mercy Corps agrees to flesh out and fund projects that address problems common to several communities.

Ibragimov says his idea to launch a mobile artificial-insemination service meets the test. "If you want to talk about raising incomes in rural areas, the solution has to address livestock," says Ibragimov, a slight, stoop-shouldered man with a wry wit. "Imagine if you could increase the amount of milk each cow provides by two liters a day, multiplied by six or seven som (20 cents) per liter, multiplied by 200 days, multiplied by approximately 10,000 cows in the area. That's the kind of revenue we're talking about."

Two weeks ago, the area's Local Economic Development Council agreed. They put Ibragimov's project atop their list of priorities, and asked Mercy Corps for about $2,500 to purchase equipment and supplies needed to inseminate 500 cows. To fulfill the requirement that the community contribute 40 percent of the total project costs, the council persuaded the town to donate an old workshop to house the insemination laboratory. Residents agreed to renovate the workshop and pick up the salary of an insemination technician.

Ibragimov plans to expand on the artificial-insemination service by tapping into the council's endowment fund — a kind of financial trust, fed by Mercy Corps, meant to support job-generating projects, innovation and entrepreneurship— to open a veterinary clinic and animal-drug store on the same premises.

Once the service is up and running, Ibramimov says it will take only a few generations of inseminated cattle for a two-year-old calf to double its current weight of 200 kilograms. Once people see the financial benefits they'll reap from the bulkier animals, he is confident they will pay the 250 som insemination fee (about US$6) that will allow the project to sustain itself.

The Local Economic Development Council is already on a path to financial independence. It has filed organizational papers with the regional government, opened a bank account and scheduled elections for chairperson, treasurer and other leadership posts. Another project — to establish a clearinghouse and marketing office for the region's cherries, apples, pears and other fruit — is already in the works.

To some, such close economic cooperation harkens back to the era of Soviet-era collectives, but Ibragimov contends this is a capitalist model that simply follows the old adage that two heads are better than one.

"The local economic developments councils are a great idea," he says, "because separately, each community would solve only their own problems. But now, we are forced to come together and solve our common problems."

Bigger cows, it seems, may be just the beginning.