Mountain economy

According to most experts, one of the main factors of escalating ethno-political conflicts in the North Caucasus is the problem of land relations. However, some Caucasian experts think that mountains are suitable for agriculture. They refer to the Soviet biologist, Nikolai Vavilov, who traveled around the world in search of the origin of cultivated plants: “In Peru, Bolivia and Dagestan we can observe an interesting terraced culture, ideal usage of mountain terrain. We can learn the use of every bit of land. In Dagestan incredible terraced agriculture can be observed.”

However, today the potential for the development of agriculture in the mountains of the North Caucasus is scarcely used, even though there is a favorable continental climate, plenty of water sources and thousands of hectares of mountain ranges. The Business-Association of Chechnya says that in mountains it is impossible to use machines, so hand labor prevails and products are expensive. But scarp slopes can be cultivated by compact machines – mini-tractors and walking tractors, like in Austria.

According to some data, by 1944 more than 30% of the population lived in the mountains of Chechnya, while goods which were produced there provided 70% of the republics consumption. VK was told by the Center of Strategic Research of Chechnya that “the mountain regions were centers of developed breeding. A special form of distant-pasture cattle tending appeared there. Despite rich mountain pastures, it is difficult to collect the necessary amount of feed-stuff for winter in mountains. That is why most of the cattle were driven to winter pastures near Terek.” This unique system of economy, which was formed many centuries ago, was destroyed. The first blow was dealt by the deportation in 1944. After reconstruction of the republic in 1957 the authorities didn’t allow mountain residents to continue their households, as it didn’t suit the collective household system of the USSR.

Another reason for resettlement of mountain residents to the plains (at least 20,000 people) was landslides in the late 1980s. Efforts to revive abandoned mountain residential areas failed. Great amounts of money were needed, while isolated households became separated from winter plain pastures. The two Chechen military campaigns dealt the last blows to small mountainous residential areas. Today in Dagestan, where mountainous regions saw no mass deportations, mountain households have more than 2 million small herd animals. In Chechnya – far fewer. That is why Dagestan exports meat and breeding products, while Chechnya imports them.

After analysis of the mountainous zone, agricultural experts understood why mountain residents of ancient times built security towers high in the mountains. “For protection from enemy-nomads – is only half of the answer. Who needs poor mountain people, if they possess nothing? Nomads only attacked those who had something valuable. Construction of a security tower was like construction of a skyscraper today. If the mountain people spent a lot of resources on it, they had something which needed protecting. So they were wealthy people,” the initiators of the project for cultivating mountain land say.

“Today the number of businessmen in remote regions of the republic is trifling in comparison to the plains regions,” the deputy chairman of the Chechen government committee on small business, Avkhan Dzhamukhanov, told VK, promising the establishment of an agro-business incubator in two years.

Timur Utsoyev, Grozny. Exclusively to VK