15.10.2024, 20:59 48456

Land area with water-saving irrigation methods increased by 85.1 thousand ha in Kazakhstan

At the Government session Deputy Minister of Agriculture Azat Sultanov said that the total area of irrigated agricultural land in Kazakhstan is 1.9 million hectares, primeminister.kz reports.

Of these, 1 million hectares or 67% of land is irrigated by surface method, 98 thousand hectares or 6.5% - is flooded rice fields, on 397.3 thousand hectares or 26.3% of modern irrigation technologies are used. During the current growing season, about 11.2 billion m3 of water was supplied for irrigation.

As a result, annually about 300 thousand hectares of irrigated lands remain not supplied with water due to excessive losses in irrigation systems. The largest share in the structure of crops under irrigation is occupied by fodder, cereals and legumes, vegetables, root crops and other agricultural crops," Azat Sultanov said.


At the same time, as a long-term solution to save water, the Ministry continues to implement a programme to diversify crops with a focus on reducing water-intensive crops and introducing water-saving technologies.

It is planned to reduce the area of cotton by 36.4 thousand hectares and rice by 14.1 thousand hectares by 2026. Compared to last year, the area of rice has already been reduced by 2.2 thousand hectares and brought to 98.1 thousand hectares, cotton by 10 thousand hectares to 106.4 thousand hectares. At the same time, in Kyzylorda province the rice area was increased by 1.7 thousand hectares due to secondary use of collector water and brought to 85.6 thousand hectares.

Increase of areas with application of water saving technologies allowed to provide growth of crop yields. Thus, in comparison with last year there is an increase in yield of rice by 8 centners/ha, sugar beet by 109 centners/ha, potatoes by 51.5 centners/ha and vegetables by 26.5 centners/ha," Azat Sultanov said.


In accordance with the Head of State's instruction, work is underway to increase the area of irrigated land with the use of water-saving technologies. This year the area of irrigated land with water-saving irrigation methods has been increased by 85.1 thousand hectares.

According to the results of the year, the indicator on annual introduction of areas with application of water-saving technologies will be brought up to 150 thousand hectares. To achieve these indicators, the Ministry provides appropriate measures of state and financial support.

Within the framework of investment subsidies, 594 projects worth 33 billion tenge have been financed for 2 years. Also, the implementation of the Programme on crediting projects in the sphere of agro-industrial complex through a trusted agent in all areas has been launched. Since this year, irrigation projects have been included in the list of creditable projects with credit terms at 2.5 per cent for up to 10 years," Azat Sultanov added.


Two projects aimed at providing agricultural producers with domestic irrigation system have been implemented. Domestic manufacturers, such as BNK Irrigation and ADAM MANUFACTURING, plan to produce more than 1 thousand units of equipment annually. There are 3 more projects in the pool of investment projects for production of water saving installations.

The Chinese company Vodar is currently implementing a project for the production of sprinkling machines in the FEZ "Chemical Park Taraz". The approximate date of commissioning of the project is scheduled for September 2025. The projected capacity of the enterprise is 1 thousand drum-type machines and 500 circular sprinkling machines.

Turkish company KAZ-AFKO is implementing a project on production of circular irrigation systems in Atyrau region. The capacity of the project is 500 units in the first year with subsequent increase to 1,000 units. The launch is scheduled for the end of 2024.

Also, new companies are showing interest in organising production in the country. In particular, the Turkish company AKPLAS intends to ensure the implementation of the project for the production of irrigation systems together with the social-entrepreneurial corporation ‘Baykonyr’ in Kyzylorda region. The planned date of production launch is the third quarter of 2025.

Thus, the combined efforts of foreign and Kazakh companies will create a solid foundation for sustainable development of the water conservation sector," Azat Sultanov summarised.

 

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