THE AREA OF FRUIT AND BERRY GROWING IN KAZAKHSTAN

Abstract

A program of vineyard and orchard restoration is in progress in Kazakhstan. The government subsidizes a part of the reconstruction costs and the new areas of perennial plantations, but, despite this, the gardens and vineyards in the regions are hardly growing. The subsidy is introduced to support local nursery farming, perennial nurseries of fruit and berry crops and grapes are subsidized by partial (50%) reimbursement of the planting material production costs. However, across Kazakhstan, the average fruit and berry plantation area for 2012-2020 is 58 740.4 hectares. The area of apple plantation is the largest (32616.9 ha), followed by grape – 14 530.1 ha, apricot – 3 598.5 ha, pear - 2061.1 ha, cherry – 1 575.2 ha, plum – 1 334.7 ha, raspberry – 1 259.4 ha, strawberry – 9 16.1 ha and peach – 578.4 ha. The topic of domestic agrarian science support to the industry deserves special attention, also in terms of training of qualified specialists, who are the key players in the field of fruit and berry production, without which it is impossible to bring the yield of fruit and berry crops to world standards. Resolving this issue would allow Kazakhstan to increase fruit production fivefold, even with the existing area of orchards. Implementation of the inspection and certification system would ensure transparency and objectivity in the cultivation of planting material for fruit crops, which will create grounds for the significant growth of investment in seed production and planting material development of fruit and berry crops.