NUR-SULTAN. KAZINFORM - Yesterday, on March 24, a regular meeting of the Operational Headquarters for Anti-Crisis Measures under the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan chaired by Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov was held in Nur-Sultan, Kazinform reports citing Primeminister.kz.
As part of the meeting, members of the Operational Headquarters considered a number of operational and systemic issues facing the sphere of the agro-industrial complex (AIC) of the Republic of Kazakhstan today:
- additional allocation of funds for spring sowing;
- the main problems of the logistics of delivery of the necessary inventory items for agricultural production.
At the meeting, it was noted that the current foreign policy situation provokes an increase in world prices, including domestic prices for agricultural products, including machinery, seeds, genetic material, mineral fertilizers, etc.
In accordance with the instructions of Prime Minister A. Smailov, the Ministry of Agriculture, together with the Ministry of Industry and Infrastructure Development, is working to reduce prices for mineral fertilizers. So, since March 16, the cost of ammonium nitrate has been reduced from 200 thousand tenge to 160 thousand tenge per ton.
Earlier, at a government meeting, Prime Minister A. Smailov instructed the Ministry of Agriculture, together with the Ministries of Finance and National Economy, Baiterek NMH JSC to provide an additional budget loan for spring field and harvesting work in the amount of 70 billion tenge as part of clarification of the republican budget. To solve the problems with collateral for farmers, it was proposed to provide for the possibility of lending to farmers through grain and oilseed market traders who have the necessary liquid collateral.
As part of building up domestic food security, the head of the Ministry of Agriculture announced a program to develop its own seed varieties to reduce import dependence. As the head of the department explained, the Ministry of Agriculture has developed a roadmap for the cultivation of domestic seeds.
“It is necessary to adopt a medium-term program for the development of the science of domestic seed varieties as soon as possible. There is a degeneration of the current varieties of seeds, productivity is falling. There is a steady trend towards increased drought from year to year. In these realities, the development of new varieties of seeds resistant to drought and giving a greater volume of production is of paramount importance,” the Head of the Cabinet of Ministers instructed. Also, the Government instructed the Ministry of Industry and Infrastructure Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan, together with Kazakhstan Temir Zholy JSC, to provide additional rolling stock and work out the issue of alternative supply routes for the import of seeds from the Russian Federation in order to timely supply inventory items for agricultural production.