Baku, Azerbaijan, April 26
By Ali Mustafayev – Trend:
Kazakhstan plans to use additional 1.5 million hectares of land for irrigated agriculture, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture of Kazakhstan Umirzak Shukeyev said at the Economic Policy Forum of the American Chamber of Commerce, Kazakh media reported.
"We work with international institutions, including the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, with the Asian Development Bank to equip our areas for irrigated agriculture," Umirzak Shukeyev said.
He added that there are about 1.5 million hectares of irrigation areas in Kazakhstan and that the Ministry of Agriculture is engaged in the restoration of about 610,000 hectares of them.
"We have the opportunity to additionally use 1.5 million hectares of irrigated areas. This is our major task, which can also be formed as a new branch program," the deputy prime minister said.
He added the program may help in diversification of Kazakhstan’s agriculture, which presently concentrates, mainly, on the cultivation of wheat.
"We also work on diversification of plant growing in favor of increasing oil seeds, vegetables, fruits and so on. In this context, we need interaction with our foreign partners, and I am very grateful that the American Chamber of Commerce organized this. I think that a very interesting and substantive discussion can be held here on attracting technologies, financial resources and investments to the sector of agriculture in Kazakhstan," Shukeyev said.