Abstract
This study examines the daily cooperative grazing system of sheep and goats in the Alai valley, southern Kyrgyzstan, mainly focusing on the two sub-districts of Sary-Tash and Taldy-Suu. The existence of the daily grazing system was examined in 15 villages in the valley: among them residents in six villages located in the east call the system as kezüü, whereas residents in nine villages in the west use the term, novad. Three types of kezüü were found in Sary-Tash and Taldy-Suu: (1) three-seasonal, village-based kezüü, (2) two-seasonal, village-based kezüü, and (3) three-seasonal, jaioo-based (summer pasture-based) kezüü. The major factor that the participation in the kezüü/novad system is to share the limited labour resource among the households possessing the small number of sheep/goats. Such reciprocal labour resource sharing in the daily grazing results in maintaining the small number of sheep and goats to form one component of the diversified pastoralism in the Alai valley.
