Accessibility of the state financial support for small farmer households in Kazakhstan

Abstract

This paper analyses the process of provision of financial support of the small farmer households by the Government of Kazakhstan. It describes the activities of JSC Fund for Financial Support of Agriculture, as a quasi-sector organization, which provides this financial support; the Farmers Union of Kazakhstan, which presents the interests of farmers; and small farmer households who are the recipients of financial resources. The primary data was collected in the forms of interviews with main stakeholders. The secondary data was represented as the statistical information, reports and international experiences in the literature review. This paper draws the current situation in Kazakhstan in the field of state financial support for small farmer households. The results of the interviews identified the common and non-common factors, which have affected the accessibility of state financial support for farmers. The analysis of key findings showed that the policy-makers are fully aware of the challenges for farmers. Moreover, the Government of Kazakhstan addresses much money and other resources to deal with them. Nevertheless, we conclude that the main obstacles to access to state financial support in Kazakhstan are complicated bureaucracy, low valued collateral in a rural area, and lack of business knowledge and skills among the farmers. Based on the key findings of this research, we recommend farmers to unite into farm cooperatives; in addition, the Government should continue to develop the digital technologies, and introduce large-scale educational programs.