Kazakhstan is overly fascinated with importing breeding livestock and seed material, according to senators. In their opinion, over the past 30 years, many Kazakh breeds of livestock have disappeared from the country, remaining on the brink of extinction.

As Senator Ali Bektayev stated in a parliamentary inquiry, there has been a certain amount of work on livestock breeding over the years of independence. Breeding animals were imported from Europe, Australia, and Canada. Just in the years 2010-2023, 212 thousand head of cattle were imported from near and far abroad. The share of breeding animals increased from 2.9% in 2010 to 13.5% last year. However, the results in this industry remain unsatisfactory.

«35.8 thousand farms are engaged in livestock breeding, but the results of their work are low. The work of the Chamber of Livestock Breeding is also a mystery. Instead of breeding our own livestock, we are obsessed with importing it and importing seed material,» believes the senator.

According to his information, at present, within the framework of investment projects, it is planned to import more than 50 thousand head of cattle. In addition, it is planned to purchase more than 500 thousand doses of seed material for 160 thousand head of cows. That is, only in livestock breeding, about 70 billion tenge will go abroad.

«The Ministry of Agriculture has a quasi-state enterprise ‘Asyl Tulik’ in its structure, engaged in the production of breeding, highly productive livestock. Unfortunately, the work of the team is also not going in the right direction, the production does not reach the farms.

«10 years ago, a unique information base for breeding and breeding work was created in Kazakhstan. The platform was intended for digitizing data in the industry, starting with the registration of animals and ending with assigning them the status of breeding value.

«In developed countries, information systems function as an analytical base and are a trigger for the development of the industry, while in our country they function only for the registration of cattle for the purpose of subsidization,» said Bektayev.

Senators are particularly concerned about the reduction of biodiversity of agricultural animals in Kazakhstan, as genetic resources in the livestock industry are an integral part of the national wealth and biological capital of the country.

«In the last 30 years, breeds in sheep breeding, poultry farming in Kazakhstan have become extinct irreversibly. Breeds of sheep and cattle are on the verge of extinction,» noted the senator.

To solve the accumulated problems in this industry, senators proposed to develop a Roadmap for the Development of Domestic Animal Breeds with the compilation of a breeding plan for 2024-2030 with the participation of the authorized body and the scientific community.

It is also proposed to analyze the work of the information base of breeding and breeding events on a scientific basis.

In addition, it is necessary to study the regulatory legal acts in the field of animal husbandry and develop modern methods for assessing the breeding qualities of animals — rules and instructions for index assessment, genomic analysis of animals.

Another proposal is to tighten requirements for breeding work and prohibit the use of breeding material that has not undergone molecular-genetic studies to identify genetically transmitted diseases.

Senators also demanded to provide measures for the conservation of Kazakh breeds, implementing targeted financing programs for breeds that are under threat of extinction.