ASTANA – A number of projects introducing digital technologies into Kazakhstan’s agro-industrial complex (AIC) are underway. Full digitisation will increase labour productivity and the export of processed agricultural products by at least 2.5 times over the next five years, First Vice Minister of Agriculture Arman Yevniyev told a Sept. 25 meeting of the government.
Photo credit: brightfarming.com.
To date, 61 out of 101 state services are partially automated and one is fully automated. There are 98 optimised state services, which are approved by the Interdepartmental Commission for the Selection of Public Services, reported Yevniyev.
The ministry plans to automate 16 state services by the end of this year, while all public services will be digitised by 2022.
The ministry has set digitisation categories for farms ranging from basic to advanced and eventually, to digital. Currently, the level of development is basic. The ministry reports that its e-AIC programme has digitised all areas under crops and generated updated maps of the chemical state of soils, reported Yevniyev.
To date, the ministry has achieved digitisation of 23.7 million hectares of land or 98.8 percent of the total sown area to create accurate electronic field maps.
In addition, 537 electronic applications for the shipment of 16,594 tonnes of diesel fuel have been formed. Digitising fuel shipments is intended to curtail corruption.
“Digitisation will be farmer-oriented and simplify all tasks from the beginning to the sale,” said the official. New farmers should especially benefit from the project, as it will provide assistance at the initial stages of establishing an enterprise, such as gathering information and advice and organising training.
Farmers will be able to receive online consultations on farm management, agronomy, seed production and livestock production in 2020, while online lending for spring fieldwork will launch in 2019.
Digitisation is intended to improve the production process by easing procedures for obtaining subsidies and accessing data on agro-chemical analysis, space monitoring and weather.
The ministry plans to start digitising some selected regions before July 1, 2019.
