LocationsFor more than ten years, Salkyn Baimurzaeva from the village of Ak-Jar in At-Bashy District has been producing traditional Kyrgyz dairy products. Using milk from her own three cows, she makes ghee (clarified butter), kurut (a traditional dried fermented dairy product made by nomadic peoples of Central Asia, similar to a very hard salted cheese curd) and talkan (traditional coarse flour made from roasted wheat and barley), preserving traditional recipes while ensuring the natural quality of her products.
From Home Production to Sustainable Entrepreneurship: The Story of Salkyn Baimurzaeva
August 7, 2026
Salkyn Baimurzaeva
UNDP Kyrgyzstan
Despite years of experience, Salkyn’s work remained a small family-based production. To turn her passion and traditional knowledge into a more sustainable source of income and gain the skills needed to develop her own business, she joined the seven-month educational programme of UNDP’s Women Creative Labs (WCL) initiative, implemented in 2024–2025.
The initiative helps rural women take the first steps from home-based production, crafts and personal interests towards entrepreneurship. The programme focuses on developing practical business skills, financial literacy, marketing and product promotion, enabling participants to gradually strengthen their businesses and identify new opportunities for growth.
Today, Salkyn’s farm produces around 36 litres of milk daily, allowing her to make up to 3 kilograms of kurut per day, or approximately 80–90 kilograms of finished product per month. She has built a network of four regular customers who purchase her natural farm-made kurut and offer it to tourists, introducing visitors to Kyrgyzstan’s traditional foods.
Her production remains a small family enterprise, but over recent years, the family’s income from selling traditional dairy products has doubled. For Salkyn, this is not the final destination, but an important step showing that a small home-based activity can gradually develop into a sustainable family business.
Salkyn runs her business with genuine care for people. For her, it is important not only to preserve traditional recipes but also to ensure that customers receive safe and natural products. That is why she personally oversees quality control at every stage of production.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, this commitment became especially visible. Salkyn hired a courier to deliver homemade products to people undergoing treatment who were unable to purchase essential goods themselves. This reflected her core belief that caring for people is an integral part of her work.
Participation in the Women Creative Labs programme became an important milestone in strengthening her entrepreneurial skills. Through the programme, Salkyn received training in financial literacy, entrepreneurship and business development, gained practical knowledge on marketing and product promotion, and had the opportunity to exchange experiences with other women entrepreneurs.
The programme helped her look at her business from a new perspective, identify future directions for growth and develop a clearer vision for expanding her small enterprise.
The knowledge and experience gained through the programme have become the foundation for her next steps. In the near future, Salkyn plans to insulate her production container and increase the number of livestock, which will gradually allow her to expand production volumes and improve efficiency. In the longer term, she aims to develop her own brand of traditional Kyrgyz dairy products, increase their added value and reach more customers.
The initiative was implemented by UNDP in partnership with government institutions and local authorities and contributes to the priorities of the National Development Programme of the Kyrgyz Republic until 2030, including human capital development, women’s entrepreneurship, creative economy and regional development.
Background information
The story of Salkyn Baimurzaeva demonstrates how investing in women’s entrepreneurial skills can create new economic opportunities at the local level. Through the Women Creative Labs initiative, UNDP helps rural women transform crafts, home-based production and personal interests into sources of income, develop business skills, improve access to markets and gradually build the foundation for sustainable enterprises. This approach contributes to local economic development, strengthens human capital and expands economic opportunities for women, their families and rural communities.
In Naryn Region, UNDP supported the establishment of three Women Creative Labs in the villages of Ak-Jar, Kyzart and Kochkor. During the implementation period, 313 women became residents of these labs, while another 1,589 women and girls joined the Women Creative Labs community. Participants gained access to more than 83 educational activities focused on entrepreneurship, financial literacy, marketing and creative economy development.
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