February 24, 2012

Kazakhstan's bumper grain crop poses sector problems

The high grain yield in Kazakhstan presented a number of systemic problems in the industry of grain storage and transportation, announced the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

According to the press-service of the Ministry, in 2011 the average grain yield totalled 17 c/ha. As a result, the country produced 27 million tonnes of grains in clean weight, allowing to the export potential of the country to increase by 2 times.

In the current year JSC National Company Food Contract Corporation plans to begin construction and upgrading of silos with storage capacity of nearly one million tonnes of grains, in order to reduce the deficit of storage capacities of grains and oilseeds. It is also envisaged to realise construction of grain silos at the expense of participants of the grain market at the level 0.5 million tonnes.

It was noted that in 2012 reduction of the share of wheat in the structure of agricultural crops sowings in the main grain sowing regions of Kazakhstan to the level of 50-60%, which is the scientifically recommended level, became the important task in the industry of plant growing, by raising crops sowings under legumes, oilseeds and forage crops.