Akim of WKR: land should be owned by those who want and know how to work on it

Since the beginning of 2021, 171 thousand hectares of abandoned land have been identified in the West Kazakhstan region, of which only in February-March - more than 51 thousand hectares. Experts in the field of land relations have revealed that 202 farms in the region are not engaged in growing crops and do not graze livestock on leased land areas. At the same time, 21 farms in the region are experiencing a shortage of acreage to grow grain, oilseeds and vegetables.

The situation when some do not work on their land, and others have nowhere to work, because there is not enough fallow land, was the subject of discussion at an online meeting in the Akimat of the West Kazakhstan region.

Akim of the region Gali Iskaliyev, akims of the districts and the city of Uralsk, representatives of relevant departments met to hear reports on the state of unused agricultural land in the region and the issue of allocating land to investors through JSC " SEC "AQJAIYQ".

- On December 31, 2021, the moratorium on the use of agricultural land in relation to certain provisions of the Land Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan will be lifted. Our President has clearly stated that Kazakhstan's land will not be sold to foreigners. And now the commission on Land Reform has begun work on discussing the provisions of the draft Land Code and developing proposals for it. The Government will have to develop a number of measures to bring agricultural land into full economic circulation. It is necessary to attract investment in the agricultural sector. And to this end, we are constantly carrying out a number of works in the region, " Gali Iskaliyev said at the beginning of the meeting.

The head of the regional Department of Land Relations Murat Umraliev told the audience that in order to effectively and efficiently use agricultural land, the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Kazakhstan has prohibited the transfer of agricultural land in the border zone to foreigners and stateless persons, citizens of the Republic of Kazakhstan who are married to foreigners or stateless persons. In order to create an economic compulsion for farmers to voluntarily abandon abandoned allotments, amendments to the Tax Code were adopted, providing for a multiple increase in the tax rate from 10 to 20 times on unused agricultural land, and changes were made to the Land Code on the use of remote sensing data to identify unused agricultural land. A draft law has also been developed, which provides for reducing the stages of inspections and the terms of withdrawal of unused agricultural land from 3 years to 1 year. In addition, the law establishes a single standard lease agreement for agricultural land, which specifies the procedure for monitoring their rational use.

Umraliyev explained that due to the cancellation of the moratorium on certain provisions of the Land Code by the end of 2021 and the decision of the Head of State to ban the sale and lease of land to foreign citizens, amendments are being made to the land legislation.

In order to discuss the norms of the draft Land Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan and prepare proposals, a Commission on Land Reform was established on March 19, from our region, it included the first Deputy akim of the WKO Mukhtar Mankeev and the director of Beles Agro LLP Murat Zhakibayev. On March 25, the first meeting of the land commission was held to discuss topical issues in the field of land use.

In order to increase the area of rationally used allotments of agricultural land, the Land Relations Department conducts purposeful work to identify abandoned plots with their subsequent involvement in agricultural turnover.

So, for 2019-2021, 1 million 96 thousand hectares of unused arable land and pasture land were identified in the WKO, of which 174 thousand hectares were identified in 2021.

The leader in the presence of abandoned allotments and the number of farmers who are not engaged in the cultivation of leased agricultural land is Kaztalovsky district. Here, since the beginning of this year, the specialists of the land inspection have identified 65 farms that manage more than 51 thousand hectares of pasture land, where they do not graze cattle.

In the Syrymsky district, 28 argarii do not use 15.6 thousand hectares for their intended purpose (of which almost 4 thousand hectares of arable land are overgrown with weeds and more than 10 thousand hectares of pastures are abandoned).

In the Akzhayyk district, the inspection identified 25 farms that do not conduct any activity on an area of 19.7 thousand hectares (and most of the pastures for livestock are abandoned - this is 18.5 thousand hectares).

In the Zhangali district, 22 agricultural enterprises do not work on an area of more than 21 thousand hectares (of which 20.5 thousand hectares are pastures).

In the Terektinsky district, 17 owners of peasant farms abandoned cultivating more than 12 thousand hectares of fallow land (this is all arable land, which is now overgrown with weeds).

In the Bokoordinsky district, 12 farms are not engaged in cultivating 10 thousand hectares of land - this is also mostly pasture - 99% of the total number of abandoned areas.

11 agricultural formations of the Chingirlau district do not plant grain and vegetable crops on an area of more than 5.2 thousand hectares and do not graze cattle on pastures with a total area of more than 2.2 thousand hectares (since the beginning of the year, 7.8 thousand hectares of abandoned land have been identified here).

In the Burlinsky district, 10 farmers do not cultivate more than 3.8 thousand hectares of deposits and do not graze cattle on areas of about 6 thousand hectares (in total, more than 10 thousand hectares of abandoned land have been identified in this area since the beginning of the year).

In the Zhanibek district, 5 agricultural formations do not use more than 6 thousand hectares of pasture land for grazing. Similar indicators for the Karatobinsky district - here 5 farmers have abandoned 6.1 thousand hectares of pasture land.

In the Baiterek area, the land of only one farm is abandoned - Central Feedlot LLP - this is 3.5 thousand hectares (of which 2.8 thousand hectares are fallow lands where the farm could grow grain or oilseeds).

In the city of Uralsk, since the beginning of this year, one farm has also been identified - Izdenis LLP, which is not engaged in growing any crops on an area of more than 2.6 thousand hectares.

Murat Umraliyev noted that since the beginning of the year, explanatory work has been carried out among users of land plots with an area of 561 thousand hectares. As a result, they began to develop their land in accordance with its purpose.

Among the identified abandoned lands, land users voluntarily returned 144 thousand hectares to state ownership, of which 55 thousand hectares were involved in agricultural turnover.

To date, land with an area of 391 thousand hectares remains abandoned and not involved in agricultural turnover in the region.

In order to increase the basic tax rates on unused land by a factor of 10, materials were sent to the Tax authorities in 2019-2020 for 139 land plots with an area of 171 thousand hectares, as a result, an amount of 14.4 million tenge was calculated, of which to date farms have paid 10.5 million tenge.

In order for farmers to voluntarily give up allotments that they do not want to cultivate, it was decided to increase the tax burden on these plots by 20 times.

- The average allotment of one farm in the Burlinsky district is 2500 hectares. At the basic tax rate (it is equal to 1 ha - 28.98 tenge), the farm pays a land tax in the amount of 72,450 tenge per year. If the agricultural land is abandoned, the tax rate increases up to 10 times and is already equal to 724,590 tenge. With the introduction of amendments to the land legislation, this amount for unused abandoned plots will increase up to 20 times and will amount to 1 million 449 180 tenge, " Murat Amangeldievich explained.

He said that an action plan for the inventory of agricultural land was approved in the region on behalf of the akim of the West Kazakhstan region in order to identify and account for unused land, working groups were created in all districts of the region.

From 2021, in order to identify ownerless land, space monitoring of vacant land will be carried out legally - for the use of data from the Qoldau Internet portal.kz district departments of land relations conclude contracts with JSC "Information and Computing Center".

"At the second meeting of the National Public Council, the President said that only those who can engage in land development are worthy of being its owner," Murat Umraliyev said. - In our region, there are many agricultural organizations that effectively use their land plots, create food security in the region and contribute to its economic development. And these farms are sorely lacking in acreage.

So, according to the Department of Land Relations, at the moment, 21 farms in the West Kazakhstan region need additional area for crops with a total area of 119.8 thousand hectares.

For example, in the Baiterek district of Avangard LLP, additional areas of 2071 hectares are needed, according to the regional department of agriculture, this farm sows winter, spring, oilseeds, forage crops, has all the opportunities for development. But there is no free land near the farm.

On the geoportal, as Umraliev stressed, 1,044 hectares of unused fallow land were identified in the Baiterek area, which were transferred to the farmer A. Nedopekin, and 338 hectares, which were received by the head of the peasant farm N. Umbetov. In Taskalinsky district, Luch LLP sows winter, spring, oilseeds and forage crops on an area of 3,792 hectares of land and also has a shortage of free acreage, while 660 hectares of land transferred to the neighboring Alan Plus LLP remain unused.

In the Terekty district, Tulpar-LTD LLP (7443 ha of arable land) sows winter and oilseeds on an area of 2008 ha. To expand the arable land, the farm needs another 2 thousand hectares of land. According to the geoportal, the neighboring farm of M. Mukhambetkaliev does not use 167 hectares, A. Baymukanov-1168 hectares, A. Bekenov-600 hectares. Therefore, local executive and authorized structures should work with land users in this direction and explain to negligent land users that they are obliged to voluntarily return the land to the state so that it is involved in agricultural turnover, and not overgrown with weeds.

According to the chairman of the Management Board of JSC "SEC "AQJAIYQ" Alimzhan Tokhtasunov, since 2019, the program "100 places for street trade"is being implemented in Uralsk. For a little over a year, 42 land plots were sold through auctions for a total of 43 million tenge for the construction of trade pavilions.

- For two years in the city, 34 trade pavilions were installed on the purchased plots, where farmers sell their own products at a price 10-15% lower than the market price. Until May 2021, more similar pavilions will be installed, " Alimzhan Tokhtasunov said. - To date, within the framework of the program "100 places for street trade", 12 enterprises have been opened and 70 jobs have been created. By the end of the year, it is planned to sell an additional 50 land plots, create 10 new enterprises and 100 new jobs.

Summing up the results of the online meeting, WKO Akim Gali Iskaliyev instructed the mayors of cities and districts to take timely measures to identify unused agricultural land, including to conduct space monitoring through the Internet portal Qoldau.kz, and on an ongoing basis to conduct explanatory work with land users.

Noting the high demand for agricultural land, the head of the region said that it is necessary to hold competitions to return unused land and put it into agricultural circulation.

- We need to provide entrepreneurs with opportunities to expand, open new enterprises: in cities, allocate land for the construction of small businesses, in districts - for acreage and pastures. Only in the last month, 54 thousand hectares of abandoned agricultural land were identified. According to the assurances of representatives of the Department of Land Relations. all these areas are suitable for farming. Last year, we put 545 thousand hectares of agricultural land up for tender, and this year we will also lease at least 500 thousand hectares to agricultural organizations. Anyone who wants to work on the land, knows how to do it, should get these plots. Those who do not want to work should voluntarily return the land to the state or start developing those plots that they have leased. We are ready to provide all the necessary assistance to our farms - diesel fuel at a cheaper price, subsidies for the purchase of seeds, preferential loans for leasing equipment, they only need a desire to work, " Gali Iskaliyev concluded.

Lyudmila Kalashnikova,

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