Soviet Legacy instead of Sustainability
Reform Backlog in Kazakhstan’s Agriculture
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
Kazakhstan is pursuing an agricultural policy rooted in Soviet tradition. Large farms are seen as the engines of modernisation. They enjoy more state support than family farms. Agriculture is primarily practised in those areas of cultivation that were established in the 1930s and are marked by monocultures. Despite declining productivity, soil degradation, and the negative social and ecological consequences of monocultures, the diversification of agriculture is making little progress. There are no signs that the country is structurally adapting to climate change, neither in methods of wheat cultivation in the north, nor in irrigation management in the south, nor in livestock farming. Innovations in the field of sustainable irrigation or the promotion of extensive long-distance grazing livestock farming are still in their infancy.
(Osteuropa 8-10/2024, pp. 347–356)