The land governance system in Kyrgyzstan underwent drastic changes after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Kyrgyzstan had no private ownership of land, while the ethnic Kyrgyz had a culture of nomadic herding. In this context, in 1991, the Kyrgyz government adopted a package of laws regulating land relations. These defined the legal, organisational, and economic aspects of the formation and functioning of agricultural enterprises of different ownership, such as collective and state farms.

While this land reform has ensured farmers' full ownership of land, it has also fragmented agricultural land and led to the dominance of small-scale peasants. There are cases of obtaining a land share of up to 3 acres of land per family, limiting farming households that want to increase income derived from farm employment. In this respect, Kyrgyzstan faces new challenges:

1. Developing and implementing state and regional programmes to consolidate small land plots.
2. Developing legal and economic ways to protect against the unjustified reduction of valuable agricultural land and land use for non-agricultural purposes.
3. Fighting against land degradation and desertification.