almost 97 percent own plots between 0 and 5 hectares (World Bank 2007). According to table 24, the distribution of land size among members of jamaats shows quite a different picture, as less than 40 percent of households own less than 2 hectares of land and less than 60 percent own less than 5 hectares of land. Jamaat members in the surveyed areas tend to own larger plots of land than the average in northern Kyrgyzstan. Even so, small landowners are represented in jamaats as 20 percent of members own less than approximately 1 ½ hectare of land. More important, as the key indicator for poverty is meant to be cattle ownership, households who own a small number of livestock are equally represented, although as a minority, in jamaats. From survey data we know that in 2015 in quintile 1 households own between none and two cows, and in quintile 2 two cows. These can be considered respectively as very poor and relatively poor households, as from Martiniére´s typology previously used rich herders are those who own six or more cows. These households owning up to two cattle represent 40 percent of jamaat members. This whole picture is consistent with qualitative data collected in the field asserting that, based on jamaat conditionalities, each jamaat has to include approximately 2-3 poor households out of 8-10 making up the jamaat. Further useful information can be extracted from table 23. With the exception of quintile 4, we observe that the larger the number of cattle, the larger the size of land. Concentration of livestock goes hand in hand with concentration of land. However, within the land-sharing cooperative arrangement of jamaats, the poor can benefit from larger scale that is supposed to be mainly provided by larger land owners. This hypothesis is partially confirmed by table 25 below.
1 2 3 4 5
Cattle quintiles size of land in jamaat Total
Size of owned land, sq. m. Integrated/owned land Portion of land integrated into jamaat, sq. m. Mean Mean 13231.30 16401.90 80.7% 51680.3 37219.6 138.9% 104236.4 89497.7 116.5% 77725 78929.5 98.5% 105215.6 105146.7 100.1% 70575.2 65618.8 107.6%
Table 25 - Portion of individual land share integrated into jamaat Table 25 shows data on the portion of land owned or rented by households and integrated into jamaat land-sharing and the respective ratio. When joining the jamaat community, a household may join with its own land plot or may take additional land for rent, whereas poor households can join jamaats without any land plots, as their land plots may be located very far away. This explains why in some cases land integrated to jamaat is more than 100 percent of owned land. We observe that relatively small and mean cattle owners are the groups that contribute proportionally with more land to jamaat. Smallest cattle owners – whom we know also own less land – are those who contribute less. However, largest cattle (and land) owners contribute very significantly, with 98.5100 percent of the land they own – possibly they do not contribute with more than 100 percent because they don´t need to rent additional land. Therefore, it can be confirmed that larger cattle owners are those who most contribute to land-sharing in jamaat because they own larger land and share approximately 100 percent of it. Such a contribution is supposed to benefit all members including poor members, as for them land-sharing is an opportunity to gain productive scale. Benefits from jamaat membership This leads us to the second question addressed in this subsection on jamaat, which refers to economic and non-economic benefits of jamaat membership. Survey data indicate that income for jamaat members has been increasing continuously since 2009.