Billions Are Going to Agricultural Science in Kazakhstan, but Deputies Say It Is Still Not Enough

Kazakhstan has already allocated 28.9 billion tenge to scientific and technical programs in the agricultural sector, and plans to allocate another 38.4 billion tenge in the coming years. Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov said this in response to a request from deputies who pointed to systemic problems in agricultural science and its weak link to production, Orda.kz reports.

Bektenov was responding to a request from deputies of the Auyl party, who said agricultural science in Kazakhstan continues to face deep structural problems. According to the deputies, the commercialization rate of scientific developments does not exceed 17%, and most research remains at the laboratory stage.

In its response, the government said science funding is gradually increasing. For example, the state order for the National Agrarian Scientific and Educational Center was raised from 225 million tenge in 2024 to 618 million tenge in 2026. Basic funding for scientific organizations also increased from 2.1 billion tenge to 2.6 billion tenge.

The main share of financing is provided on a competitive basis through program and targeted funding by the Ministry of Agriculture. A total of 28.9 billion tenge has been allocated for the implementation of scientific and technical programs for 2024–2026, compared with 24.2 billion tenge in 2021–2023. About 38.4 billion tenge is planned for 2027–2029. the prime minister’s response said. 

The authorities are also focusing on commercialization. This year, applications were submitted for grants worth 13.9 billion tenge, of which 4.3 billion tenge came from business. In 2022–2025, 45 projects worth 20 billion tenge were implemented, including 6.7 billion tenge in extra-budgetary funds.

At the same time, the deputies insist that agricultural science remains underfunded.

Research in agricultural processing accounts for only about 10% of the total science budget, and projects are limited to short timeframes, even though the introduction of technologies requires at least five years. the request said.

The deputies also pointed to import dependence. More than 50% of canned meat, more than 60% of sugar, and up to 80% of canned vegetables and fruit are imported, which, in their view, reflects the weak development of domestic processing.

The government said reforms are continuing. According to its response, the agrotechnology transfer center has been relaunched, and the National Agrarian Scientific and Educational Center is being developed as an agrotechnology hub.

In the long term, the authorities say they plan to raise funding for agricultural science to 1% of gross agricultural output.

Original author: Saule Adykamit

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