The number of machines for locust field treatments has nearly doubled. In 2024, 247 units of equipment were utilized for chemical treatments, while the plan for 2025 is to use 443 units. This includes 46 agricultural drones that the Ministry of Agriculture has purchased for the regional branches of the RGP "Phytosanitary." Additionally, seven reconnaissance UAVs have been acquired. This was announced by Deputy Minister of Agriculture Ermek Kenjezhanuly during a meeting in the government. The session was chaired by Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of National Economy Serik Zhumangarin, as reported by the press service of the Ministry of Agriculture.
“Following the successful pilot project in the Turkestan region, where last spring the spraying of fields with agricultural drones and centralized procurement of services for the purchase, transportation, and storage of pesticides, as well as the treatments themselves, were tested, the Ministry of Agriculture has implemented a unified service procurement for conducting phytosanitary measures across all regions under the principle of 'One supplier – all works.' This makes participation in the procurement of these services more attractive for businesses and increases accountability for the results,” said Ermek Kenjezhanuly.
He noted that farmers and service providers for chemical treatments can receive a reimbursement of 25% of the cost of agricultural drones, ground fan sprayers, and boom sprayers.
The meeting also discussed the preparation of regions for spring fieldwork. As part of the early financing that began on November 29, 2024, 70 billion tenge has been allocated to 671 agricultural producers from a total of 100 billion tenge. Farmers from grain-producing regions have actively utilized this tool: Akmolinskaya (15.4 billion tenge), Kostanay (14.9 billion tenge), and North Kazakhstan regions (14.5 billion tenge). In contrast, southern regions – Turkestan, Zhambyl, and Zhetysu, where spring sowing begins earlier, have only 10 billion tenge in applications.
According to preliminary information from the regions, the readiness of agricultural machinery for spring fieldwork is about 56%. With a seed requirement for the harvest of 2.3 million tons, the storage stands at 99%.
Following the meeting, Serik Zhumangarin instructed to review the structure of sown areas in terms of reducing wheat sowing volumes and increasing oilseed and other high-margin crops. He also directed to maximize the areas sown with elite seeds of Kazakh selection, which showed the best yield results in 2024.
Next Wednesday, Serik Zhumangarin plans to visit one of the southern regions to familiarize himself with the preparation for spring fieldwork and to discuss the development of the real sector of the economy.
As previously reported, on December 30, 2024, the Deputy Prime Minister visited the Karaganda region, where he stated that the work of the Ministry of National Economy would focus on regional efforts.