Kazakh President stands for private farmland ownership

Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev has spoken out in favour of private farmland ownership in the country. He made this statement on Monday in Astana in his annual address to parliament, in which he spoke on major areas of Kazakhstan's foreign and home policies. The Kazakh president instructed the government to draft a law on private farmland ownership. According to Nazarbayev, "the parliament should discuss the law this year so that it could enter into force from next farming year." "In Kazakhstan's conditions, including land in the market turnover will mean including in the economy huge untapped resources," Nazarbayev said. He noted that over the last ten years Kazakhstan, in which villagers make up over 40 percent of the population, has lost 25 percent of fertile land because it either stood idle or was used for purposes other than agriculture.