ASTANA – Kazakhstan ranked first in the world in the production of flax reaching the volume of more than 900,000 tonnes flax in 2018.
Photo credit: kazakh-zerno.kz.
This was announced by Kazakh First Vice Minister of Agriculture Arman Yevniyev at a recent expanded meeting of the board of the ministry.
According to the official, the increase in labour productivity in the agro-industrial complex in 2018 was 23 percent. In particular, it was achieved because of diversification of acreage, which is the transition from the production of traditional cereals to those that are now in more demand such as fodder, oilseed, and vegetable melon, reported express-k.kz.
“This season, 22.8 million tonnes of grain were harvested and 11.7 million tonnes of grain were exported. This is 32.4 percent more than in 2017. Gross collection of oil seeds amounted to 2.7 million tonnes. Kazakhstan for the first time ranked first in the world in production of flax bringing the production volume to 930,000 tonnes,” said Yevniyev.
As a part of the sectoral development programme of intensive gardening, for the next 10 years the agriculture sphere’s tasks are to sow 47,000 hectares of land and ensure import substitution.
“As part of the intensive gardening development programme, 862 hectares of intensive gardens were laid. The main regions to place intensive orchards are the Almaty, Zhambyl and Turkestan regions, where 162 hectares, 200 hectares and 500 hectares of land (were given for gardening respectively),” said the vice minister.
Yevniyev also reminded that the agriculture ministry is open to discuss all programmes.
“Taking this opportunity, I’ll say, everyone who has proposals, come to our project office, see how it works and get involved in the projects. As of Feb. 7, there are 3,095 projects in operation,” he said.
According to vice minister, further growth in the exports requires continuation of deep processing of grain for the production of pasta, starch, fibrin, gluten and organic chemical fabric. Such projects have been implemented in Kapshagai in the Almaty region and Tayinshy in the North Kazakhstan region. In Kostanai, the project is entering the construction stage.
