February 13, 2012

Kazakhstan to reduce wheat production

Kazakhstan plans to decrease wheat crops and increase lands for growing forage, oilseeds, legumes and fodder crops, said the executive secretary of the Agriculture Ministry.

"Diversification of the structure of sown areas is of strategic importance for agriculture development. We will continue working in this direction," Aman said.

Aman said that wheat crops reach 65-66% of total sown areas in the Republic and up to 78% in some regions of the country. Meanwhile, science-based amount of wheat crops should not exceed 45-50%.

Aman said that it is planned to sign some memorandums between the Agricultural Ministry and regional governing bodies, as well as with agricultural producers to diversify structure of sown areas. Moreover, state subsidies for wheat and other grains production will be revised from 2013.

Kazakhstan collected 26 million tonnes of grain in net weight in 2011. This is a record grain harvest within years of independence. Export potential is estimated at 15 million tonnes. However, the country has problems to export all this volume.