Azerbaijan, Baku, Aug. 12 / Trend E. Kosolapova/
Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev received the Agriculture Minister Asylzhan Mamytbekov on Monday, the presidential press-service reported.
During the meeting, the Head of State gave specific instructions on the 2013 harvesting campaign, as well as measures to improve the competitiveness of agro-industrial enterprises.
Mamytbekov informed the president about the current state of agriculture, as well as the implementation of the Program for the agro-industrial complex development "Agribusiness 2020".
Mamytbekov stressed that the agricultural industry is developing dynamically.
"Currently the main task is to gather the harvest. Indeed, the harvesting campaign has already started in the south, and will be completed soon in some southern regions... The three main grain-producing areas are preparing for harvesting. The harvesting will be difficult due to the increased precipitation. Therefore, we interact with agricultural enterprises, so that they prepare sowing areas and machinery," he said.
The President noted that over 1 million tons of grain has been already collected in Kazakhstan's southern regions, stressed the need of effective harvesting and urged to use different harvesting technologies depending of ripening periods.
Kazakhstan is among the world's major grain exporters. In 2011, the republic had a record harvest of nearly 27 million tons of grain in net weight. Kazakh farmers yielded only 14.8 tons due to the drought in 2012, which occurred in summer in main grain regions. The grain harvest for 2013 is forecasted at 16.3 million tons net weight.