The agricultural sector should become a new driver of Kazakhstan’s economy. This task was set by the President Nursultan Nazarbayev in his annual address. Kostanay farmers have already started its implementation. Their vast experience and established international links will help to maintain high levels of Kazakhstan’s productivity. Last year, Kazakhstan’s flour corporations increased their production by more than 7%, and export volumes - by 38%. The main thing, the farmers say, is to sell profitably.

VLADIMIR DRANCHUK, CHAIRMAN, FARMERS’ UNION, KOSTANAY REGION:

The President Nazarbayev has wisely said that the Foreign Ministry should deal with international trade as well, so we could negotiate on the government level.

According to the President Nazarbayev, in the next five years, it is necessary to create conditions to unite more than half a million farms in the cooperatives, to increase the level of processing and revise subsidizing principles from cash assistance to insurance. The farmers say that the government created favorable conditions for agriculture and now it is necessary to organize the work and improve the productivity, Sairan Bukanov says. Other farmers agree with him, Kazakhstan’s labor hero has forty years’ experience in farming.

SAIRAN BUKANOV, FARMER:

We have great potential, we need to work more and increase the productivity.

Kazakhstan is a country with huge agricultural potential which needs to be utilized by cost-conscious farming, skillful marketing and attracting investment. Then Kazakhstan will become the "bread basket" of the entire Eurasian continent, farmers say.