The harvesting has begun in the regions of Kazakhstan. This was reported by the Government. The day before, a meeting of the operational headquarters was held there, where all the details of the upcoming work were considered, the APK News agency reports.
Before the mass start of the harvesting campaign, scheduled for the third ten days of August, Deputy Prime Minister Serik Zhumangarin organized a special meeting of the management of the operational headquarters.
As of August 15, harvesting is already underway in 12 regions of the country: Aktobe, Almaty, East Kazakhstan, Zhambyl, West Kazakhstan, Karaganda, Kostanay, Kyzylorda, Turkestan, Abay, Zhetysu, Shymkent. The total area of harvesting areas reaches 23.6 million hectares, with almost two-thirds (16 million hectares) falling on grain and leguminous crops.
According to operational reporting, about 1.1 million hectares of grain fields (about 6.6%) have already been processed, about 1.6 million tons of grain, 17.4 thousand tons of oilseeds have been threshed, 363 thousand tons of potatoes, 1.3 million tons of vegetables and 1.6 million tons of melons have been collected.
The level of readiness of harvesting equipment today is about 93%, but on the eve of the active phase of harvesting, the indicator will be brought to 100%.
Harvesting activities involve an impressive number of specialized agricultural machinery: about 139 thousand tractors, over 31 thousand combines, about 17 thousand reapers and other auxiliary mechanisms with a total of 130 thousand units.
The government of the republic supported farms by allocating about 402 thousand tons of fuel for the needs of the harvesting campaign, the price of which is significantly reduced relative to market indicators. Agricultural producers have already received 9.3 thousand tons of diesel fuel, which corresponds to the level of fulfillment of the planned target of slightly more than half of the required amount.
In addition, special attention was paid to the freeing up of elevator capacities for storing the new harvest. The storage facilities are currently at a level of 16%, the occupied products are about 2.2 million tons with a total capacity of 30.7 million tons.
A proposal was made to ensure the sale of a significant remainder of grain reserves - in the amount of 500 thousand tons - on the balance sheet of the state food corporation. As First Deputy Chairman of the Board of the Food Corporation Ildar Ismagilov emphasized, about 328 thousand tons of grain have been sold so far, but the export program provides for the supply of volumes to such countries as Thailand, the Persian Gulf states, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan and Algeria.
Serik Zhumangarin instructed the Food Corporation to speed up the sale of the remaining volume of grain to free up elevators.
Summing up the meeting, the Deputy Prime Minister confirmed the need to continue regular meetings of the task force every week, starting from the start of mass harvesting operations, in order to promptly identify and eliminate possible problems and difficulties.