State of agriculture in the Aktobe region

The World of NAN editorial analyst is starting a small series of posts on the situation of agriculture in each major region. More analytics on agriculture can be found in the Telegram channel of the editorial office.

Agriculture in the Aktobe region produced products worth 458 billion tenge in 2022. This is 7% more than in 2021, and the region's share in Kazakhstan's agricultural output amounted to 4.8%. However, when compared to other regions, Aktobe ranked only 12th out of 20 regions. This indicates significant potential for future agricultural growth given the size of the area and population.

Strong livestock production and weak but growing crop production. Nevertheless, the region's position in livestock farming is quite strong, with the majority (57%) of agricultural output coming from it. Aktobe is the 6th largest livestock producer in Kazakhstan, with total output of 259 bln KZT (-3% by 2021). The region's share in Kazakhstan's agricultural output amounted to more than 7.1%. But the region's share in crop production amounted to only 3.4%. Aktobe ranks 12th in crop production, but in 2022 the growth was impressive: +24%.

Decrease in sown area of cereals. At the same time, the sown area in 2022 decreased by 17% in annual terms to 661 thousand hectares. The share of sown area of the region amounted to 2.9% of the whole republic, and the place in the ranking is the 9th. The main decrease in area was in grain crops (-17%). Nevertheless, the region ranks higher here in 7th place, and specifically for wheat 6th place with an area of 277 thousand hectares. But this result is not quite high, as the region's share of wheat area is only 2.1%.

The grain yield was doubled in 2022. Wheat yields in Aktobe, on the other hand, turned out to be excellent. In 2022, 378 thousand tons of wheat was harvested, which is 110% higher than the result of 2021.

The region also ranked 6th in wheat harvest, with a yield of 13.7 c/ha, which is 7% higher than the national average. Yield growth in 2022 amounted to 140%. This situation was observed not only for wheat, but also for oilseeds (+48%), sunflower seeds in particular (+46%) and millet (+45%). In Aktobe in 2022 harvested 33.5 thousand tons of sunflower seeds, which is 94% higher than in 2021. Aktobe ranked 8th in the rating of regions. The millet harvest amounted to 2.8 thousand tons, which is 8% more than a year earlier, and among the regions of the Republic of Kazakhstan this is the 5th result.

Weak positions of the region in vegetables. But for vegetables, melons, root and tuber crops, Aktobe's results are quite low. The total harvest amounted to 213 thousand tons, which is only 1.8% of the total harvested in the country, and in the rating of regions it is only 13th result. The yield of vegetables per hectare is also low relative to the average republican values: 168 c/ha, which is 31% lower than in Kazakhstan. However, by the area of greenhouses, Aktobe takes the honorable 5th place with the result of 385 thousand hectares, which is 16% more than in 2021.

Aktobe is the leader in hay harvesting. The region shows itself best of all in the matter of hay collection. In 2022, the result was 2.5 million tons, which is the first result among all regions of Kazakhstan. Aktobe brings 15% of hay to the country.

A lot of meat and hides. Also the situation in livestock farming is much better, as we mentioned earlier. For 9 months of 2023, 104 thousand tons of livestock and poultry were slaughtered live weight (+3% y/y), which is the 6th result among all regions. The share of Aktobe amounted to 6.7%. The share of large hides is also high (10%), and Aktobe ranked 2nd in the ranking. Nevertheless, the situation with milk and eggs is somewhat worse. The region ranked only 8th in chicken eggs and 10th in milk yield.

High number of farm animals. Despite all this, the number of cattle and cows, in particular, is quite high. The share of Aktobe cows in the country is 7.7%, and the region ranks 5th in the ranking. In general, by October 2023, the region has 667 thousand cattle (+6%) of which 370 thousand heads (+11%) are cows. But in terms of birds, Aktobe lags far behind, ranking 13th in the country with 1.4 million birds. For sheep, goats, horses and camels, the region's position is quite strong. Aktobe has 7.5% of all horses, 8.3% of camels, 6% of sheep and 7.6% of all goats in the country. Aktobe ranks 5th in the ranking of regions by the number of these domesticated animals, except for horses, for which Aktobe ranked 4th.

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