BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 10
Trend:
The volume of state support for Kazakhstan’s agro-industrial complex in 2020 grew by 13 percent, the Minister of Agriculture Saparkhan Omarov said at a meeting with the public, Trend reports via Kazakh media outlets.
According to Omarov, last year was difficult for the country's economy and the agro-industrial complex, but anti-crisis measures and strict adherence to the priorities of the state agricultural policy allowed ensure the stable development of the domestic agro-industrial complex amid the [COVID-19] pandemic.
The volume of state support in 2020, given the anti-crisis measures, was brought to 366 billion tenge ($860 million), which is 13 percent more than compared to 2019, he noted.
At the same time, according to the minister, the support mechanisms were promptly simplified and fully automated, allowing ensure the transparency of the granting process. Due to changes in the requirements for subsidies, the coverage of state support for small and medium-sized farmers was increased.
“In particular, all subsidies in crop production have been combined into uniform rules and subsidies for plant protection products have been expanded. Now, not only herbicides are subsidized, but also other types of pesticides,” he further said. “One of the main innovations is the possibility of receiving subsidies not within a calendar year, but within 12 months from the date of purchase of seeds, fertilizers, pesticides.”
“The volume of financing for the agro-industrial complex through the Agrarian Credit Corporation, the Fund for Financial Support of Agriculture (FFSA) and Kazagrofinance company at the end of 2020 also increased and amounted to 446 billion tenge ($1.04 billion),” Omarov stated. “Due to this, 57 large projects were introduced, and about 15,000 jobs were created in the countryside.”
“To solve the problem of the lack of a sufficient collateral base for farmers, a new mechanism for guaranteeing loans from second-tier banks was introduced, which is implemented through the FFSA,” he noted. “The loan guarantee tool allows agribusiness entities to provide a bank with a collateral of only 15 to 50 percent of the required amount of collateral. The rest is guaranteed by the state.”
“Another innovation was the introduction of a voluntary insurance system in the agro-industrial complex, which provides for state support in the form of subsidizing insurance premiums in the amount of 50 percent,” the official said. “At the same time, such an insurance product as cattle insurance appeared for the first time. The risks include infectious and especially dangerous diseases, fire, malicious actions of third parties, dangerous natural phenomena, as well as accidents - explosions, lightning strike, strangulation, animal attack, and others.”
“Following the results of spring field and harvesting works in 2020, farmers insured 115,000 hectares of grain and oilseeds in six grain-growing regions. As a result of insured events, 518.2 million tenge ($1.21 million) was paid,” concluded Omarov.