Agriculture and Animal Husbandry of Kish
The current animal husbandry and agriculture of Kish follow the same traditional farming methods as before, even with more limited activity than in past periods. Remains of beds and inactive, scattered fields on Kish all indicate cultivation and gardening (although limited) appropriate to its small population of that era. The existence of remnants of qanats and long vanished waterways and the filled rings of old wells due to sediment deposition all confirm this view.
Although the present visage of Kish has completely changed and transformed compared to its past, and the island's natural aspects have been displaced by countless constructions and the extent of building activities relative to the limited area of the island and its ecological capacity is very large and beyond its ability, there are still villages with a few cows and sheep, a larger number of goats and a few camels. The grazing of these animals, especially the goats during years of low rainfall and drought on the island, causes severe damage to the island's natural cover and also tightens the living and feeding area of several released gazelles.
One of the very interesting measures of the Kish Free Zone Organization is creating drinking troughs for the island's gazelles, whose water is supplied from shallow wells by windmills. Seeing those windmills evokes for the viewer a reconciliation of humans with nature. In any case, the number of goats on the island is beyond its natural capacity and some of them must be removed. On Hendurabi Island there are also many goats that, with the existing drought, severely damage its vegetation.
The livelihood and everyday life of the island's natives — who are honorable people with a high culture and, like all the inhabitants of southern Iran, have a dignified, sun-browned face under the island's bright sun — is sustained by limited agriculture, fishing, animal husbandry and possibly camel training (to attract tourists), and some people make a living through trade and service occupations.
In any case, except for the gazelles, the island's livestock should not be free, and if their meat is needed they must be kept in enclosed places with fodder supplied from outside.