Organics is a global trend in agribusiness

Currently, nearly 180 countries are actively developing organic farming. However, despite the fact that this has become a kind of trend in modern agriculture, so far “organic” occupies only about 1% of the world's cultivated land, and this is more than 50 million hectares. Which over the past four years have increased almost four times. For example, in 1999, "organic" was grown only on 11 million hectares, thus marking the beginning as they say. Today, more than two million enterprises produce environmentally friendly products worldwide. 84 countries have already passed relevant legislation, and in dozens of countries similar bills are under consideration.

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All countries of the European Union are developing organic production, in the countries of the African continent - 70% of countries, in South America - 72%, and in Asia almost 80%. The undisputed leaders in this sector of agriculture are Australia - 17.2 million hectares, Argentina - 3.1 million hectares and the United States - 2.2 million hectares. Moreover, if two years ago in this area the annual turnover amounted to about 90 billion US dollars, today this figure is close to 200 billion dollars. It is proved that with the introduction of "organic" technology, the productivity of the same medium and small peasant farms increased by 116%, and profitability - by 2-3 times. It is all over the world.

What is organic farming?

What is organic farming? And why the future of the world agro-industrial complex is associated with it? It is very simple. In such agriculture, farmers, if not refusing to use chemical fertilizers, pesticides and various growth regulators, try minimizing their use. Everything is “built” only on an organic, natural process. Moreover, this is, first of all, the use of crop rotation, the remains of vegetation, animal manure, green fertilizers, biological methods of controlling pests and diseases.

Organic farming in Kazakhstan.

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In our country, the development of organic farming has been discussed for a long time. In 2010, the “Organic Agriculture Association” was even created in Kazakhstan. A new agricultural organization was created on the initiative of the leadership of research institutes and leading peasant organizations in the Kostanay and North Kazakhstan regions. Moreover, five years later, after the creation of a specialized public organization, a legislation “On the Production of Organic Products” was adopted on November 27, 2015.

The document stipulates the legal, economic, social and organizational components of the development of organic agriculture. In regards to the development of the organic segment of the agricultural sector in Kazakhstan, as a whole it can be divided into the following stages. 2017. In his Address to the people of Kazakhstan, the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Elbasy Nursultan Nazarbayev, “Third Modernization of Kazakhstan: Global Competitiveness”, noted that the republic has all the prerequisites to become one of the leading manufacturers of organic food, under the brand name “made in Kazakhstan”. In the same year, in 2017, the State Agro-Industrial Complex Development Program was adopted until 2020, where a place was also found for the development of organic farming. 2018. The adopted Strategic Development Plan of Kazakhstan until 2025 states the need to stimulate the growth of export-oriented environmentally friendly products to foreign markets. In addition, in 2019, in his Address to the people of Kazakhstan, President Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev stated, “Agriculture is our main resource, but it is not used to the full extent. We have significant potential for the production of organic and environmentally friendly products that are in demand not only domestically but also abroad.”

Prospects for the growth of organic agriculture in the Republic of Kazakhstan

Today, in Kazakhstan, more than fifty companies are engaged in the production of organic products that meet all international standards, "organic" is cultivated on an area of more than 300 thousand hectares of land. In 2018, about 300 thousand tons of organic agricultural products were produced. The republic is on the 26th place among 181 countries where organic farming is developing. In Asia, we are in third place in this indicator, and Kazakhstan is second only to China in terms of organic grain production. The tasks have already been set for Kazakhstani farmers in this area in the coming years, to increase organic production in vegetable growing to 2%, melon growing to 2.5%, potato growing to 2.8% of the total gross harvest in the republic.