Kazakhstan to withdraw 5mln ha of unused, illegally obtained agricultural land plots

NUR-SULTAN. KAZINFORM First Deputy Prime Minister Roman Sklyar held a regular meeting of the Commission for Withdrawal of Unused and Illegally Allocated Land Plots this week, Kazinform learned from the press service of the Ministry of Agriculture.

Minister Yerbol Karashukeyev reported to Roman Sklyar on the results of detection and withdrawal of agricultural lands. According to him, 1,119,000 hectares of land have been returned to the state as of August 10, 2022. This is 2.7 times more compared to the same period last year (400,000 hectares).

Presently, the ministry carries out 724 unscheduled onsite inspections in regards to land users on the area of 2.94mln hectares.

48 claims on the inspection of 698,400 hectares of land plots have been submitted to the prosecutor’s offices so far.

Since the beginning of the year, the territorial divisions of the ministry’s Land Management Committee detected 74 cases of illegal allocation of land plots by akimats (local administration).

«Meanwhile we observe sharp deficit of up to 16mln hectares of grazing lands. This situation leads to the reduction in livestock and social unrests in rural areas,» Minister Karashukeyev said.

In general, the Commission plans to inspect 2,584 land users on the area of 7.45mln hectares, including 585,200 hectares of arable lands and 6.863mln hectares of grazing lands.

Yerbol Karashukeyev called the akimats to actively join the identification of unused land plots and control the reliability and timeliness of data submitted to the Ministry of Agriculture regarding the land plots.

The Ministry plans to withdraw up to 5 mln hectares of unused lands and illegally allocated land plots by yearend.