Kyrgyzstan

Official website of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan: www.kyrgyz-el.kg

Geography

Kyrgyzstan is located in the north-eastern part of Central Asia, within the Pamir-Alai in the south-west and the Tien Shan in the north-east. The country borders with Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and China. Area: 199,900 square km (forests - 5,3%, water - 4%, agricultural land - 54.0%, other lands - 36.3%). About 40% of the country is almost unfit for life – that is glaciers, permanent snow, rocks, slide-rocks, high-mountain detrital deserts etc., and about 7% is a cultural landscape: i.e. fields and towns, roads and industrial facilities. The rest of the territory is rich in diverse natural communities: nut-tree, juniper, spruce, deciduous forests; highland, midland and lowland meadows; steppes and deserts, wetlands.

Climatic conditions in the territory of Kyrgyzstan are fairly heterogeneous because of the rugged terrain relief - in the high mountains of Tien Shan the weather has all the characteristics of sub-polar climate, in the south-western regions (Ferghana Valley) - sub-tropical, and in the northern foothills – of almost a moderate climate. The average annual temperature in the northern foothills reaches 10-13°C. The average temperature in the hottest month - July is 25°C and above, and the absolute maximum reaches 42°C (Bishkek). The average January temperature ranges from –1°C to –8°C in the valleys and up to –18-27°C in the highlands. The coldest month is January. The "pole of cold" of Kyrgyzstan is the Aksay basin, where the absolute minimum temperature of –53,6°C is registered. Summer (July) air temperature in the valleys ranges from 15°C to 27°C, in the foothills - from 10°C to 24°C and in the highlands - from 5°C to 11°C. Annual rainfall varies from 180 mm in the eastern regions to 600 mm in the south-western regions. Maximum rainfall is in early summer and in autumn-winter period. The characteristic feature of climate in Kyrgyzstan is dry air over the entire territory of the country, due to that there are about 247 sunny days a year.

Population

Kyrgyzstan has a population of 5.3 million (as of January 2010). The population is represented by more than 115 nationalities, of which 68,9% Kyrgyz, 14% Uzbeks, 9,2% Russians and 8% other nationalities. The largest part of Kyrgyzstan's population lives in the capital - Bishkek (1 million people). The densely populated cities are Osh (222.200 people) Jalal-Abad (76.500 people) and Karakol (63.300 people). Administratively the republic is divided into 7 regions and 39 districts.

Agriculture

Agriculture is a major branch of the Kyrgyz economy. Over 55% of gross agricultural production is crop production: cereals, sugar beet, cotton, tobacco, potatoes, grapes, fruits, berries and vegetables, 45% - animal products: meat, wool and milk. Agriculture employs 55% of working-age population.

Biodiversity

Kyrgyzstan, occupying only 0.13% of the land of our planet, has a great biodiversity - 1% of the total biodiversity of the planet is represented in Kyrgyzstan. This, in a comparative perspective, is much higher than average.

On the territory of Kyrgyzstan there are 7723 species of plants, including 3,786 species of higher plants (of which about 1600 species have economic and useful value, including: 450 species of forage plants, 300 species of nectariferous plants, 200 species of herbs, 62 species of essential oil plants and 50 species of food plants); 3,676 species of lower plants; more than 12,300 species of animals, including 83 species of mammals, 368 species of birds, 33 species of reptiles, 75 species of fish, with a total of 567 species of vertebrates; 10,290 species of insects, 1282 species of worms, 168 species of mollusks and 261 species of microorganisms (viruses, bacteria and protozoa).

Agrobiodiversity

The western Tian Shan and southern Fergana valley of Kyrgyzstan are part of the ancient Central Asian botanical and geographic center of origin of cultivated plants. The specific populations of hexaploid wheat (Triticum inflatum), small-seeded forms of pea (Picum) and chickpea (Sicer) are originated from there. There have been domesticated and originated the primary forms of white and yellow varieties of carrot (Daucus), varieties of onion and garlic (Allium cepa and A. stivum), lucernes (Medicago sativa).

Southern Kyrgyzstan is home to many fruit crops. As the result of repeated hybridization in forming of varietal diversity of different species for apple (Malus domestica) were formed in the basis of the wild species Malus siversii, M. Niedzwezkyana, for pears (Pyrus domestica) - wild species Pyrus communis, P. Asiae-madiae, P. Korschinskyi, and also there were domesticated apricot (Armeniaca vulgaris), almond (Amygdalus communis), pistachio (Pistacia vera), walnut (Juglans regia), which still have high levels of diversity in wild nature zones.

But the region is especially well-known as a secondary center of varietal diversity of fruit crops: apricot (Armeniaca vulgaris), walnut (Juglans regia), pistachio (Pistacia vera), Elaeagnus (Elaeagnus), almond (Amygdalus), currants (Ribes), grape (Vitis), and ornamental crops: tulips (Tulipa), irises (Iris), onions (Allium), primroses (Primula), etc. There is exceptionally large variety of wild forms of plum (Prunus sogdiana, P. ferganica), hawthorn (Crataegus pontica, C. saguinea), buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides), olives (Elaeagnus orientales, E. angustifolia), rowanberry (Sorbus tianschanica, S. persica), cherry (Cerasus erythrocarpa, C. verricosa, C. tianschanica), currant (Ribes nigrum, R. Janczewskii, R. Meyeri) and raspberry (Rubus idaeus).

All of them are considered as a valuable source material for breeding and creation of new productive varieties of cultivated plants that are resistant to pests and diseases.

In the Tien Shan there have been identified 132 species of ancestral forms of crop plant relatives. Diversity of wild relatives of cultivated plants is the key to food safety of population.

The main activities of the institute are to preserve and restore walnut-fruit forests through the selection of commercially valuable forms and their reproduction in nurseries, breeding new varieties, studying the characteristics of promising varieties of walnut from the previously derived breeding materials and shapes, selected in natural stands, the systematization of scientific data on pests and diseases of trees walnut-fruit forests, the development of measures to combat them.

List of target fruit crops, covered by the project in Kyrgyzstan

Apple – Malus sp.;
Walnut – Juglans regia L.;
Black currants - Ribes sp.;
Grapes – Vitus sp.;
Sea buckthorn - Hippophae rhmmoides L.;
Pistachio - Pistacia vera L.;
Alycha - Prunus cerasifera.