Development of cooperation to allow increasing competitive advantages of small-scale production — Ministry of Agriculture

At the government session chaired by Prime Minister Askar Mamin, measures were considered to implement the Address of the President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to the people of Kazakhstan “Kazakhstan in a New Reality: Time for Action." Minister of Agriculture Saparkhan Omarov reported on upcoming plans for the development of the agro-industrial complex.

As the minister informed, in order to develop a new National project for the development of the agro-industrial complex for the next "five years", a Working Group was created, which included heads of public industry associations and unions, international experts in the field of agricultural development, representatives of Atameken National Chamber of Entrepreneurs, as well as business and agrosciences.

The purpose of the Working Group is to prepare the Concept of the new State Program for the Development of the Agro-Industrial Complex, it will form the basis of the new Program Document, which will contain the following tasks:

  • saturation of the domestic market with socially significant foodstuffs; 
  • growing incomes of the rural population;
  • increasing labor productivity by 2.5 times;
  • increasing exports of agricultural products by 2 times.

“Issues of increasing the availability of finance, land resources, development of agro-science, digitalization of the industry, veterinary and phytosanitary safety, as well as issues of developing the export potential of not only raw materials, but also products of its processing will be worked out,” Omarov said.

At the same time, in order to increase the capacity utilization of processing enterprises, measures will be worked out to develop anchor cooperation, which will allow linking the potential of personal subsidiary farms and small scattered farmers with the needs of food and light industries through vertical and horizontal chains of cooperation.

“It is the principle of cooperation ‘together is stronger’ that will increase the competitive advantages of small-scale production. For the development of cooperatives, economic conditions have been created in the form of priority and increased subsidy standards, as well as preferential tax regimes,” the minister said.

For example, in August 2020, amendments were made to the subsidy rules, which provided for agricultural cooperatives with investment subsidies in the amount of 50% of the cost of equipment and machinery, as well as subsidies for milk and meat harvested by cooperatives.

In addition, tax legislation provides for 70% tax relief for cooperatives. Work in this direction continues. So, now, as part of the training of industry managers, implemented by the Nursultan Nazarbayev Foundation and the Project Office under the Office of the Prime Minister, the introduction of additional measures to support cooperatives is being discussed.

“As a result, ecosystems for the production and processing of agricultural raw materials will be created around large investment projects. Undoubtedly, additional growth in these areas will provide an increase in the area of ​​irrigated land. Now, to reduce water consumption and stimulate the transition to moisture-resource-saving technology, the cost of modern irrigation systems is subsidized by 50%, which will significantly reduce water consumption and losses,” the head of the ministry explained.

In addition, work is underway to attract global companies to Kazakhstan for the production of modern irrigation systems, so that they are more accessible to domestic farmers.

“For the development of agricultural science, based on the experience of the development of Nazarbayev University, a pilot project will be implemented to create Research Universities. In particular, on the basis of Seifullin Kazakh Agrotechnical University with the subordination of 4 research organizations. And also on the basis of the Kazakh National Agrarian University with the involvement of four research organizations on the principles of a consortium. This will make it possible to link theory with practice, which will ensure the demand for domestic scientific research for business,” concluded the minister of agriculture.

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