Kazakhstan starts spring field works
By Aynur Jafarova
Spring field work has been started in the southern regions of Kazakhstan, while the works in the northern regions will start in mid-May.
Speaking at a governmental meeting, Kazakh Agriculture Minister Asylzhan Mamytbekov said that the pace of work in the southern regions is higher than last year.
The minister said that spring grains are sown in the area of 83,000 hectares (23 percent), oil crops on 31,500 hectares (9 percent), vegetables, melons and potatoes - 13,900 hectares (6 percent) and permanent grasses - 34,900 hectares (36 percent).
Almost 16 million hectares of lands will be occupied by grains,
13 million hectares of which will be sown with wheat, he said,
adding that the total spring sowing area is 18.6 million
hectares.
However, he said, in accordance with the memorandum on
diversification of crop acreage for 2012-2016 signed between the
Agriculture Ministry, akimats of the provinces, KazAgro national
holding and KazAgroInnovation Joint Stock Company, the area
allocated for wheat sowing is expected to decrease by 468,000
hectares and for rice by 5,700 hectares due to the expansion of
areas of priority crops such as corn and other crops, the area of
which will increase by 5,600 hectares and 76,800 hectares,
respectively.
In February it was reported that the Kazakh government adopted a new industrial program 'Agribusiness - 2020' for the development of agriculture in 2013-2020.
According to the program, the mechanisms of state support will create optimal conditions for increasing competitiveness in the agricultural field.
As a result of the program implementation, an increase is expected in the volumes of agricultural production by 1.5 times, three-fold increase in productivity per person employed in agriculture, growth of export earnings from the sale of agricultural products by 20 percentand ensuring independence of basic domestically produced foods at the level of 80 percent.
The program will create favorable conditions for business development in rural areas, encourage investment in the sector and increase the efficiency of allocated budget funds.