Kazakhstan Exceeds Its Agricultural Land Recovery Target

Kazakhstan continues to return agricultural land that is unused or was allocated in violation of legislation to state ownership. At the same time, work is underway to bring this land back into economic circulation.

Against an annual target of 1 million hectares, 1.2 million hectares of inefficiently used agricultural land have already been returned to the state.

Murat Temirzhanov, Chairman of the Land Resources Management Committee of the Ministry of Agriculture, spoke about the results of the work and further measures in the field of land relations at a press conference held by the Central Communications Service under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

According to him, the work does not end with returning land to state ownership. The main objective is to ensure its further efficient use, taking into account the needs of rural residents and agricultural producers.

The use of land resources is monitored on an ongoing basis. This year, territorial divisions conducted more than 1,000 unscheduled inspections covering an area of more than 1 million hectares.

Following the inspections, land users received 715 orders to eliminate identified violations on an area of 884 thousand hectares. Materials concerning the compulsory seizure of another 211 thousand hectares are currently under consideration by the judicial authorities.

Despite the early fulfillment of the annual agricultural land recovery target, monitoring activities are continuing. Violations continue to be identified in accordance with current legislation.

At the same time, the state continues to redistribute land that was previously returned. As of the beginning of September 2026, the total area of redistributed land plots had reached 13.5 million hectares.

Of this amount, 5.5 million hectares were allocated for common use by local residents for livestock grazing. Another 8 million hectares were transferred to entities in the agro-industrial complex on a competitive basis.

Particular attention is being paid to bringing large land areas ranging from 10 thousand to 50 thousand hectares into economic use. Their utilization provides opportunities for creating new jobs in rural areas, including year-round employment.

At the same time, measures are being taken to protect the rights of bona fide agricultural producers who invest in the development of their farms. A special working group has been established and methodological recommendations have been approved for this purpose.

The documents define a system for assessing the good faith of farmers, establish timeframes for interagency cooperation and simplify the procedure for extending land-use rights.

Changes have also affected the field of soil protection. In July 2026, the Law “On Soil Protection” came into force, establishing the preservation of soil fertility as a priority and expanding the responsibilities of land users.

As part of the development of the Unified Digital Platform for Land Resources, soil surveys covering 7 million hectares were conducted this year. Geobotanical surveys covered 7.5 million hectares, while agrochemical surveys covered 4 million hectares.

Digital assessment materials have been prepared for a total area of 53.5 million hectares. The surveys identified 2.7 million hectares of degraded land requiring restoration measures.

Another change is scheduled to take effect from January 1, 2027. From that date, the mechanism for allocating agricultural land plots is expected to move entirely to an electronic format.

According to Murat Temirzhanov, electronic tenders are intended to eliminate the human factor and discontinue the work of land commissions. Before the new rules come into force, the updated digital system is expected to be tested and its functionality assessed.

The pilot project will be implemented in the Akmola and Zhetisu regions.

In addition, due to the expiration in 2026 of the existing moratorium on granting agricultural land into private ownership, amendments have been prepared to extend it until the end of 2031.

Work on the return and subsequent redistribution of agricultural land will continue. It provides for the further use of land resources while taking into account the needs of rural residents and agricultural producers.