It is necessary to change the state policy in the agro-industrial complex in Kazakhstan. This was stated by the former Vice Minister of Agriculture of the country, academician, first deputy chairman of the Auyl party Toleutai Rakhimbekov. He believes that the new state agrarian policy should be in the form of a full-fledged Law, which should be adopted by the Parliament and signed by the President, the APK News agency reports.
How to solve the two main problems of society and the state: increasing REAL incomes and stabilizing food prices?
“In my deep conviction, the key to their solution lies in the accelerated development of the village and agriculture,” T. Rakhimbekov said on his page in the social network.
But, in his opinion, today they themselves need a radical reorganization. Extremely low crop yields and livestock productivity give rise to low labor productivity in the industry, its low efficiency. In turn, this leads to an ever-increasing decrease in the competitiveness of domestic agriculture in comparison even with the former republics of the once united Union - with Russia, Belarus and the Central Asian states.
As a result, Kazakhstan is not only losing the markets of other countries for the export of its agricultural products. We are becoming increasingly dependent on the import of even traditional Kazakh livestock products - meat and meat products, milk and dairy products.
And this is despite the fact that Kazakhstan's agriculture has enormous potential. It is capable of feeding not only 20 million of its own population, but also providing food products for at least 400-500 million people. And through this, the agricultural sector can become the main supplier of foreign exchange earnings for the country, and become an eternal, renewable source of currency, unlike minerals, which may run out in a few decades.
It must be said that the state invests considerable budget funds in the village and agriculture, but their efficiency decreases from year to year and tends to zero, in the language of mathematics.
"The reasons are well known: corruption, lobbying of agro-oligarchs, low competence of officials," noted T. Rakhimbekov.
The expert believes that the country needs to develop a new state agricultural policy. Moreover, it should be in the form of the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan "National Strategy for the Development of the Agro-Industrial Complex and Rural Territories of the Republic of Kazakhstan for 2026-2075", which should be adopted by Parliament and signed by the President.
"The Strategy for the AIC should be based on a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of many factors: geopolitical, transport and logistics, the threat of the emergence and spread of pandemic diseases ... But three factors should be adopted as the main prerequisites for adopting a new State Policy in the agricultural sector," Rakhimbekov believes.
Firstly, global climate change, which requires a change in the culture of farming, the use of new varieties, breeds, and technologies;
Secondly, large-scale and increasing soil degradation;
Thirdly, a change in the structure of agriculture - today small peasant (SPH) and personal subsidiary farms (PSF) predominate.
The main goal of the National Strategy is to improve the welfare of citizens.
"In the Strategy of the AIC, the state should propose a new agricultural policy and give signals to rural workers in which direction they should move in the long term," noted Toleutai Rakhimbekov.
In his opinion, the strategy of the AIC should be a conceptual document: only the main directions, main paths and main mechanisms, without any tons, hectares, percentages, with the exception of several key indicators.
All the details should be in 5-year industry National projects, for example, "Sheep breeding", "Cattle breeding", "Poultry farming", "Grain crops", "Fruit and vegetable crops", "Forage crops", "Oil crops", "Scientific and personnel support for the AIC", "Development of rural areas".
There are only three main steps in the National Strategy:
- formation and development of the production infrastructure of agriculture in the form of Rural Service-Consumer Cooperatives (RSCC). I have already written about the five functions of the RSCC many times. I think there is no need to repeat myself;
- radical reform of the system and mechanisms of lending and subsidizing agriculture.
They have been talking about creating a specialized Agrobank for a long time.
“In this matter, I have been and remain a supporter of giving the status of Agrobank to JSC Agrarian Credit Corporation. This JSC has been functioning as a bank since its establishment in January 2001. It has about 200 branches in almost all rural areas of the country in the form of LLP Credit Partnership.
But 200 KTs are not enough for Kazakhstan. Their number can be increased to 1.5 - 2 thousand units,” Rakhimbekov said.
The mechanism of operation is simple. JSC "AKK" enters the interbank loan market and borrows loans (credits) from second-tier banks for the amount necessary for farmers, let's say 2 trillion tenge, under the guarantees of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan. At a rate of 10-12% per annum. The remuneration for these loans, which JSC "AKK" is obliged to pay to banks, is immediately subsidized to 0% per annum, as a result of which the banks' loans to JSC "AKK" become at 0% per annum. Then JSC "AKK" lends to KT at 1% per annum for the purpose of acquiring fixed assets and at 2% per annum for the purpose of replenishing working capital. Having received loans from JSC "AKK", KT lend to their member participants - agricultural producers, adding another 1% per annum on top for the purpose of acquiring fixed assets and at 2% per annum for the purpose of replenishing working capital. Ultimately, for farmers, the final interest rate on loans is 2% per annum for the purpose of acquiring fixed assets and 4% per annum for the purpose of replenishing working capital. And no budget money for lending.
The amount is 2 trillion tenge - enough to carry out all agricultural work during the year.
"The total amount of subsidies today reaches 450-500 billion tenge per year. From this, 200-240 billion tenge can be taken to subsidize the interest rate on loans that JSC "AKK" will receive from banks. This is the first of two types of subsidies that should be left, canceling all other types of subsidies," the expert noted.
The remaining 200 billion tenge of subsidies can be directed to the second type of subsidies - to subsidize the costs of producing agricultural products shipped
for a) processing;
for b) export;
for c) the domestic market as part of import substitution.
If necessary, agricultural subsidies can be increased by another 200 billion tenge, since according to WTO rules, Kazakhstan can allocate subsidies in the amount of up to 8.5% of gross agricultural output. Today, this is about 650 billion tenge.
THIRDLY, completely, COMPLETELY exempt all turnover in
- production
- processing
- sales
- export and
- import of agricultural products and food products from value added tax (VAT).
"These are just three steps that need to be taken. But to take them, you need courage! We need people-officials whose knees will not tremble in front of agro-oligarchs and agro-barons," Toleutai Rakhimbekov summed up.