Kazakh cropland the size of Israel lying vacant

An area of fertile crop land nearly the size of Israel is lying uncultivated in Kazakhstan, US officials have said, after a field trip which heard that one John Deere combine is four times as efficient as Russian ones.
Kazakhstan, already a growing force in the global grain trade, could raise its 24m-hectare (59m-acre) arable area by 10% by reclaiming land abandoned after the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991 sent farm subsidies tumbling.

While much of the 5m hectares of abandoned land is viewed as only marginally productive for crops, fertile fields present relatively minor agricultural challenges to bring back into use, with the main cost that of a general herbicide.

"Recovery costs are low, unlike in central Ukraine or central Russia, where the recovery of idle land can be prohibitively expensive," a US Department of Agriculture briefing said.

"Producers indicate that most fields are able to produce an average yield within two years." The Kazakh government has viewed raising sown areas as one of its key priorities in agriculture, which is high on the agenda for a country attempting to invest oil wealth in industries with a long-term future.

Besides enhancing distribution of grain, through measures such as a customs deal with Russia and building trading facilities near the border with China, the landlocked nation is attempting to boost production, offering fertilizer, herbicide and seed subsidies.

Kazakhstan, whose crops suffer from serious drought in two out of every five seasons, also gives higher subsidies to grain produced by low-tillage farming systems, which reduce moisture loss from soil.

Although the country's growing sophistication in agriculture did not appear evident in a 2006 farm census which showed 59% of combines and 77% of tractors as more than 15 years old, this statistics were "somewhat misleading", the report added.

"The data certainly include machines that are no longer in use," the report said, flagging the finding of a field trip by USDA officials.

"Personnel observed an impressive fleet of both domestic and foreign machinery at nearly every agricultural enterprise that the team visited."

Farmers appeared satisfied with domestic tractors, while preferring Western cultivators, drills and harvesters.

"The quality gap is especially striking in the case of combines. Farm directors report that one John Deere combine can do the work of four Russian-built units, but the cost is about four times as high."