No One Left to Work With Livestock? Kazakhstan Prepares State Support for Herders

Kazakhstan is facing a shortage of herders, milkmaids, machine operators and veterinarians, and the government says it is already preparing support measures for livestock workers, Orda.kz reports.

The authors of the parliamentary request said the problem is linked to low wages, weak social support and poor living standards in rural areas. They proposed raising incomes in the sector, reducing taxes, and increasing grants and scholarships for students in agricultural specialties.

The Cabinet separately outlined support for veterinarians. In 2023–2025, 29.6 billion tenge in targeted transfers was sent to the regions to raise their pay. For 2026–2028, another 12.2 billion tenge a year has been allocated. As a result, the average salary of veterinarians increased from 119,700 to 271,500 tenge.

The authorities also said they support the draft law on veterinary medicine. It provides for an annual health allowance, extra payments for academic degrees and additional incentive payments. The proposed payments are 17 MCI for the degree of candidate of sciences and 34 MCI for the degree of doctor of sciences.

The government’s response also mentioned tax benefits for farmers.

Corporate income tax is 3%, social tax is 1.8%. Property and transport taxes are reduced by 70%. Under value-added tax, agricultural producers, processors and cooperatives retained the right to offset an additional amount of tax, while the amount of the benefit was increased from 70% to 80%. For peasant farms and individual farms, personal income tax is set at 0.5% of income.the government said.

According to the government’s forecast, the economy will need 883,000 specialists by 2030. Of those, 63,000 will be needed in agriculture. The greatest demand will be for workers and low-skilled employees.

Original author: Saule Abdykamit

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