Kazakhstani farmers are facing an 80% funding deficit: prices are rising, efficiency is decreasing.

Today, agricultural producers in Kazakhstan lack about 80% of funding. The Minister of Agriculture, Aidarbek Saparov, stated that farmers can only receive 250-300 billion tenge in loans per year, while they need 1.5 trillion tenge just for sowing campaigns. The lack of funding leads to an increase in prices for agricultural products, the minister noted.

According to him, due to the lack of borrowed funds, farmers cannot purchase a sufficient amount of fertilizers and plant protection products, as well as cannot update outdated equipment, which increases production costs and reduces efficiency.

In accordance with the decree of the President of Kazakhstan, a large-scale work is planned this year to attract funding to agriculture. At the same time, not only state funds will be used but also other sources, including the capital of secondary banks.

“As a result, 1.5 trillion tenge should be annually allocated for providing preferential loans for spring field work and harvesting; 450 billion tenge should be allocated for preferential leasing to update agricultural equipment at a level of 8-10%; 800 billion tenge – for financing investment projects,” the Ministry of Agriculture press service reported.

A. Saparov specified that all allocated funds will be returned, they are intended for financing the agricultural sector.

The Ministry of Agriculture also reminded that the share of secondary banks in lending to the agricultural sector is no more than one-third.