The Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan "Representatives of "Atameken" should be included in the commissions for issuing agricultural subsidies"
Such a proposal was made during the discussion of the concept of the state program of AIC for 2017-2021
The draft document was developed by the order of the Head of State and it has been discussed at the Government meeting. Introducing the draft, the Deputy of the Prime Minister - Minister of Agriculture Askar Myrzakhmetov said that its goal – is to create conditions for a more dynamic development of agriculture sphere for the next five years. In addition, the program stipulates the development of a network of agricultural cooperatives and gradual import substitution of food products.
"Every year Kazakhstan imports food products worth more than 1 trillion tenge, and we are talking about products that can be produced in Kazakhstan - butter, cheese, canned fruit and vegetables, sugar, and so on", - said Askar Myrzakhmetov.
In turn, the Ministry of Agriculture offered to combine small-scale producers in agricultural cooperatives to increase the domestic production of food products to "address the issues of stable purchase and sale of agricultural products for further dispatch to the processing plants".
Funds for the purchase of necessary equipment for the agricultural cooperatives will be available in the subsidary credit institutions of the holding "KazAgro", while the authors of the concept called for support in the form of subsidies to cover costs of cooperatives for private veterinary, agrochemical, financial, marketing and other services.
"Development of agricultural cooperation will provide additional annual income for rural residents in the amount of 300 billion tenge, as well as reduce the trade margin by 15-20% through reduction of unnecessary intermediary links. According to the projections of the Ministry of Agriculture, by 2021, more than 500 thousand smallholders and small farms will be combined into more than 1,200 agricultural cooperatives ", - said Askar Myrzakhmetov.
In addition, the diversification of the acreage continues. It is expected that the wheat area will be reduced to 2.3 million hectares (12.4 million hectares in 2016 to 10.1 million hectares in 2021). The liberated areas will be replaced by barley, oats, corn, oilseeds and other crops. At the same time, commenting on the issue, Prime Minister Bakhytzhan Sagintayev stressed that "Kazakhstan will not reduce the amount of deliveries of grain to foreign markets." "The square will be reduced, but with the use of new technologies the production volume will be increased", - said the head of the Cabinet.
The state program also proposed to revise the subsidy criteria, as well as credit conditions of holding "KazAgro". This will extend the reach of grantees of subsidies 7 times and improve access to finance for small and medium-sized producers", - said Deputy Prime Minister of Kazakhstan – the Minister of Agriculture Askar Myrzahmetov.
According to the calculations of the developers of the state program, "recoil from 1 tenge of subsidies will increase by almost 2-fold, from 7.5 tenge to 13 tenge products covering 50% of total production."The basic condition of concessional lending will be "download of processing enterprises, and through investment subsidies of low-cost agricultural machinery will be increased the rate of renewal of technical park by 1.5-2 times".
Touching on the subject of subsidies, the Prime Minister stressed that "there are still a lot of questions". "Askar Isabekovich, here you need to look carefully, because often grants are not fully distributed in the regions. That is the mechanism of granting of subsidies under the old system is not fully functioning", - said Bakhytzhan Sagintayev, adding that the commissions for issue of subsidies are inefficient and inconsistent.
"Instead of distributing them at the beginning of the year the process is protruded by unknown reasons until the end of the year. As a result, agricultural producers, who need these subsidies, for a year can’t wait to get them. We discussed with NCE “Atameken", how it will be possible to automate these processes, in some cases maybe to include representatives of "Atameken" in the commissions", - asked the Prime Minister the Minister of Agriculture.
As a result, members of the Government approved the state program. It is expected that the approval of the document will occur until the end of the year, after consultation with businesses and state bodies.
Zhanar Serdalina
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