Development And Prospects Of Agricultural Cooperation In The Republic Of Kazakhstan

Diversification of economy in Kazakhstan includes several prosperous directions, but main attention is paid on agro industrial sector. High productivity of foreign countries due to successful realization of farmers’ cooperation makes it key element of current state policy of development. However, despite the support provided and activities taken the cooperation implementation is still low. The aim of this research was to analyze the reasons of it and make suggestions for situation improvement. To analyze current position of cooperatives in Kazakhstan, the main international agricultural cooperation models were examined and their history together with historical background of agricultural cooperatives in Kazakhstan. Based on the data it can be concluded that various economic doctrines were the base of each model. Authors explored three different models existed in agricultural cooperatives history: Western (market economy), Soviet (government-planned economy) and Israeli (social commune). Interviews were conducted with experts in agricultural sector and food marketing in order to investigate, which factors restrain cooperation’s integration. After studying updated version of law on agricultural cooperatives and conducting interviews authors constructed SWOT-analysis, which defined the main weakness of state’s cooperatives. The unawareness of farmers about benefits of cooperation was chosen as a problem to be solved. On the base of it authors created problem-tree and further elaborated solution-tree. Authors recommend prolonging and intensifying government support, and involving private business in agricultural cooperatives development. The support should be multilevel; upper-level includes subsidies payments and legislation modifications; local bodies should help strategical planning elaboration and organization of production sales.