Young agronomists do not want to work in their profession - Professor Zhumabai Alenov

Young Kazakhstan specialists-agronomists do not want to work in their profession. This was stated by candidate of agricultural sciences, associate professor, academic professor of Kokshetau State University named after Sh. Ualikhanov Zhumabai Alenov in an interview with a correspondent of the World of NAN website.

On May 30, Zhumabai Alenov had a meeting with the Minister of Agriculture Saparkhan Omarov, where he voiced a number of problems in training young specialists for the domestic agro-industrial complex.

We contacted the professor to learn more about the issues raised.

First, Zhumabai Alenov raised the issue of students-awardees of scholarships.

"Today, students study on a scholarship, there is a certain number. I have been working at the institute for 26 years. I can say that from 1996 to 2005 everything was going well. The students graduated from the university, about 50-60% were employed as agronomists, but after 2005 the situation started to deteriorate. For example, we produce from 60 to 100 people, but only 10% of them are employed as agronomists, while the rest do not work as agronomists. Today this figure is about 2%. This problem has to be solved. Why spend public money, allocate grants, pay out scholarships, if you get such a result at the output", - said Zh. Alenov.

According to the professor, in order to solve this problem it is necessary to plan the amount of grants each year according to the needs of the regions, that is to train a limited number of students.

"Why doesn't the Ministry of Agriculture allocate grants? It is necessary to request information from the Departments of Agriculture of regions and districts, how many agronomists they actually need. According to this plan, grants can be distributed, because students often enroll only because they were not able to entoll anywhere else. Well, how will we teach them? I mean, we're just gonna torture ourselves. Those students who really want to become agronomists should enroll," Alenov said.

Also, according to the professor, we need to implement three years of practice, so that the graduate after graduation must work as an agronomist.

Then Zhumabai Alenov raised the issue of training specialists under the Serpin program.

To recall, since 2014 in Kazakhstan, the state program "Serpin - 2050" "Mangilik el zhastary - industryaga [youth of the eternal nation to the industry]. Its purpose is to attract young people from southern regions to study in the northern and eastern regions of the country to promote their further employment.

"There are also questions regarding the "Serpin" program. We receive students under this program but when they come home, to their regions, no one accepts them as interns. They say they don't need agronomists interns. This is a problem", says Zh. Alenov.

Besides, as Zhumabai Alenov noted, today young specialists lack practical experience.

"We produce agronomists, but the students actually do not have practical experience. When we studied, we had 1.5 years of practical experience. They used to know everything, and now the internship lasts only 2 months. What will a young specialist learn in two months of practice? It takes more time to prepare such personnel. Now we have four courses. Make it 4.5 or 5 years of study in agricultural specialties to allocate 1.5 years for practice. Then it will be possible to produce really good specialists," continued Zh. Alenov.

He noted that the voiced facts eventually affect the yield in the country.

"We need to understand that later all this affects the yield in general. Over the past 10 years, the yield was 11-13 centners per hectare and remains as such. It is potentially possible to get from 40 to 80 centners per hectare for any crop. We often use an extensive cultivation method when the area under crops is increased, which means that the gross yield increases. But today one can't work like that anymore, the intensive method has to be used. We need to get the harvest from 50 hectares as if from 100 hectares. Apply modern technology. This is what I call farming", - concluded Zh. Alenov.

During the meeting, the Minister of Agriculture of Kazakhstan Saparkhan Omarov listened to all voiced issues, and promised that he would take them under control, and hold the necessary discussions with the Minister of Education.