At the Government session chaired by Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov discussed issues of preparation for the sowing campaign. Minister of Agriculture Aidarbek Saparov made a report, primeminister.kz reports.
According to him, this year will continue diversification of sown areas in accordance with the Road Map, which was approved by the Government last year. The document is designed to increase gross agricultural output by 2 times.
In general, it is planned to place crops on the area of 23.8 million hectares, which exceeds the level of last year by 518 thousand hectares.
This year the diversification programme will cover about 1 million hectares. In particular, the area of highly profitable crops will be increased by 750 thousand hectares, including the area of oilseeds by 365 thousand hectares, fodder crops - by 184 thousand hectares, barley - by 114 thousand hectares, buckwheat - 41.5 thousand hectares, potatoes - 15 thousand hectares.
At the same time, a large-scale work on moving away from wheat monoculture continues. Thus, for 2 years the area of wheat has been reduced by almost 730 thousand hectares, including 159 thousand hectares this year.
The measures taken will make it possible to optimise the structure of crops and reduce risks associated with fluctuations in prices for agricultural products. Currently, oilseeds and legumes are in demand both in domestic and foreign markets, and their prices are at a stable high level, which increases the profitability of agribusiness.
For example, while the average price of wheat is 65-70 thousand tenge per tonne, the market value of such export-oriented crops as flax and rape reaches 200 thousand tenge and higher.
In addition, legumes, being good forerunners, enrich the soil with nitrogen and increase the yield of subsequent crops. This is not only profitable, but also environmentally friendly, Aidarbek Saparov said.
In order to ensure a solid fodder base, it is planned to bring the area of fodder crops to 3.4 million hectares. The area of oilseeds will increase to 3.3 million hectares, which allows to load processing plants. The planned areas will fully meet the needs of the domestic market," the Minister of Agriculture said.
In preparation for the sowing campaign the work on formation of high-quality seed material is carried out. According to the operational data of regional akimats, agricultural producers need 2.3 million tonnes of seeds for the harvest of 2025, which are now fully filled. Preliminary examination of quality of 1.6 million tonnes of seeds has been carried out.
According to the schedule, 411 tonnes of seeds have been received for full examination, 99.5% of which were found to be conditioned and meet the 1st and 2nd class of sowing standard. Mass seed inspection will be completed by the end of March.
High productivity of seeds is possible only if strict GOST standards are met, including germination and germination energy as key parameters. At the same time, services on seed examination are in a competitive environment, and the selection of the service provider is carried out through public procurement.
Today, more than 10 laboratories are accredited in Kazakhstan. However, only Kazagrex has an extensive network, including representative offices in remote areas.
In 2018-2022 Kazagrex was under trust management, which led to the reduction of narrowly specialised staff. Such experiments are unacceptable, given the importance of seed expertise for the country's food security. Taking into account the negative experience, we propose to reconsider the issue of privatisation of Kazagrex," the head of the Ministry of Agriculture said.
Aidarbek Saparov said that last year, for the first time, advance subsidies were introduced for domestic fertiliser producers. This mechanism made fertilisers more affordable for farmers, which gave an impetus to the growth of fertiliser use. As a result, for the first time ever, fertiliser application rates exceeded 40% of the scientifically proven need, compared to 21% in previous years.
Together with favourable weather conditions and compliance with other agronomic practices, fertilisers proved to be effective and good yields were achieved for almost all crops.
For 2025, the plan for fertiliser application is 1.9 million tonnes or 59% of the scientific need. Fertiliser producers and suppliers are currently working on contracting and stockpiling in warehouses. According to plants, 177,000 tonnes of fertilisers are in storage. The Ministry of Finance has supported the issue of allocating additional funds from the Government Reserve to subsidise fertilisers in the planned volumes.
As of today, according to information from the regions, equipment readiness is about 75%. It is expected that by the beginning of mass sowing operations all equipment will be 100% ready.
According to the results of 2024, thanks to state support measures, agrarians have purchased 22 thousand units of modern equipment, the level of renewal of the agricultural machinery fleet of 5.5% has been achieved. This directly affects labour productivity during spring field and harvesting operations. At the same time, this year the Ministry of Agriculture has a task to bring this indicator up to 6.5%.
In general, agricultural organisations have 140 thousand tractors, about 5.5 thousand units of high-efficiency sowing complexes, 76.4 thousand seeders, 220 thousand tillage tools.
The regions have been allocated 401,000 tonnes of diesel fuel for spring field work, which is 6.5% more than last year. Together with the Ministry of Energy, a schedule of assigning regions to refineries for diesel fuel shipment has been approved. Currently, regional akimats are holding tender procedures to identify operators for the delivery and sale of diesel fuel for SCTPs.
In November 2024, for the first time, early financing of field works of the subsequent agricultural season was launched, crediting channels were expanded: for the first time, a loan for sowing can be obtained through social-entrepreneurial corporations. Multichannelisation is important in order to avoid a ‘bottleneck’ in financing," Aidarbek Saparov said.
At the same time, to date, only 2 SPKs are involved in financing, while farmers are interested in lending through SPKs because they have the most favourable conditions.
To date, the pool of applications, taking into account the early financing of the sowing campaign is 205.1 billion tenge on more than 1.3 thousand applications of agricultural enterprises, of which financed about 900 agricultural producers in the amount of 125.6 billion tenge.
In addition, this year it is planned to allocate 200 billion tenge for preferential leasing, which will give an additional impetus to the renewal of agricultural machinery, increasing productivity and sustainability of the agricultural sector. Financing will start this month.
Aidarbek Saparov reminded the akimats of the need for timely snow retention and moisture closure measures to create optimal conditions for the sowing campaign. In addition, it is necessary to pay special attention to the timeliness and correctness of all agro-technical measures from the choice of seeds, sowing dates, use of fertilisers, pre-sowing tillage and other necessary measures. In particular,
- to ensure full readiness of machinery, including repair work and preventive maintenance in order to avoid downtime and fulfil optimum agronomic timelines;
- to organise timely distribution of diesel fuel;
- to keep under special control the issue of seed quality expertise;
- to step up work on contracting farmers to supply fertilisers.
In addition, priority should be given to the issue of scientifically-based diversification of crop areas by switching to high-yielding, drought-resistant and marginal crops that meet the requirements of the modern market and climatic peculiarities.
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