NUR-SULTAN – Kazakhstan will launch 20 digital and 4,000 advanced farms as part of a larger initiative to digitise the nation’s agro-industrial complex.
Photo credit: Digital Kazakhstan.
“As a part of the agro-industrial complex digitisation initiative, no less than 20 digital and 4,000 advanced farms will be created on the entire state territory. Also, 100 percent of processes and state services will be automated. As a part of the precision farming incorporation initiative by the Ministry of Agriculture, three levels of farms were established – a digital farm, an advanced farm and a basic farm, each of which has a set of necessary elements. The further work will be directed towards farmers improving their levels using governmental support services,” said Barayev Research and Production Centre Director Kenzhe Abdullayev at the April 15 Central Communication Services press conference.
The country currently has 114 advanced and 10 digital farms, which pave the way to upgrade basic and advanced farms to the next level.
“It’s a good beginning, but akimats (local administration) have to continue helping farms in their digital development through state support measures. Basic levels are ensured through the e-AIC programme via digitising all croplands, as well as actualising agrochemical soil condition maps. Now, we have to progress from the basic level to advanced and from advanced to digital farms. A digital evolution chain has been established and is currently being implemented,” he added.
Minister of Agriculture Omirzak Shukeyev (currently the Turkestan region akim (governor)) spoke in September with BNews, providing more detail about digital farms.
“We have to create digital farms in every district; we will demand it from the akimats. We are doing it so every Kazakh farmer can see with their own eyes and experience the result of using digital technologies themselves. We created three test sites – these are Kaskelen agro park, Shortandy in Barayev Institute and the Kostanai area based in Zarechny,” he said.
Zerde Board Chairperson Ruslan Yessenbayev described precision farming to 24 TV. The process consists of gathering soil chemistry, moisture and weather data for each square metre of land.
With agro-industrial complex digitisation, labour productivity and processed agricultural product export are to increase at least 2.5 times by the end of 2021.
