August 14, 2013

Kazakhstan develops master plan to boost milk production

Kazakhstan's Ministry of Agriculture has developed a master plan for the development of dairy cattle breeding for 2014-2020, as it aims to increase milk production in the country.

This is according to Minister Assylzhan Mamytbekov at a meeting of the Government.

"This master plan will increase milk production in the country by 1.7 million tonnes by 2020, which will greatly reduce the share of imports of milk, increase the rate of per capita consumption, in view of the steady growth of the population," the Minister noted.

Thus, according to Mamytbekov, the plan envisages the construction of 20 industrial dairy farms for 1,200 head of dairy cattle that will produce 158,400 tonnes of milk.

In addition, it is planned to build 2,000 mini-farms with capacity of 24, 50, 100, and 200 head of dairy cattle in the regions. These farms will produce 740,000 tonnes of milk at low cost.

It is also planned to focus on existing industrial dairy farms, modernise them and increase the number of livestock that will allow increasing dairy production by 55,000 tonnes.

Concerning the issues of funding, the Minister said that for setting up a dairy farm for 100 head of cattle "from scratch" more than KZT100 million (US$654,000) is needed. About KZT35 million (US$229,000) is needed for the purchase of cattle. Over KZT5 million (US$33,000) is needed for the purchase of equipment, et cetera. In this case, current assets amount to KZT20 million (US$131,000).

According to Mamytbekov, the total amount of state support for this project under the programme "Agribusiness 2020" will amount to KZT32 million (US$209,000), which shortens the payback period to 4-5 years, while today this period is 9-10 years.

On the whole, the ministry developed 15 master plans for each of the sub-sectors of agriculture. The mechanism of the master plan includes a clear division of the indices by year and by regions. This mechanism was used in the project to develop the export potential of beef and proved its effectiveness.