Nur-Sultan, 18 February 2020, the Chairman of the Board of the Non-commercial JSC “National Agrarian Science and Education Center” Toleutai Rakhimbekov spoke at the round table on issues of agrarian science and education of the Committee of the AIC of the Mazhilis of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
During the speech, Toleutai Rakhimbekov informed about the scientific achievements of the NASEC, the existing problems in agrarian science and the tasks set for the Center.
The Chairman of the Board of the NASEC said that the Center has begun to transform agrarian science and among the measures being implemented noted followings: reducing the number of institutes by transferring most of them to universities, increasing the number of experimental farms to 40 by attracting the best private agricultural organizations, moving from funding research institutes to finance scientists, the allocation of budgetary funds for the transfer and commercialization of technologies, the creation of collective laboratories, and the introduction of independent expertise of science. According to the electronic database of actual results of the research institute formed by the NASEC, today the Center has about 700 scientific works.
“We have proposed key changes in the field of scientific and educational activities of research institutes and universities. They include the transformation of agrarian universities into research universities, an increase in the share of time of scientific research institutes for teaching activities up to 20%, and university teachers for scientific activities up to 30%,” T. Rakhimbekov added.
Speaking about the problems facing agrarian science, T. Rakhimbekov noted: “We analyzed the situation in domestic agricultural science, and also studied the experience of other countries and came to the conclusion that the main problem is the insufficient number of organizations for the transfer of knowledge, transfer and commercialization of technologies.” In this regard, the NASEC proposes to develop and approve by the Government Decision the Program for the creation of the National System of Dissemination of Knowledge in Agriculture.
Today, NASEC is creating a system of training rural residents in farming skills and, in this regard, is organizing a three-level system of training: at the national, regional and district levels. In total, NASEC plans to establish more than 200 Knowledge Dissemination Centers. These Centers for the Dissemination of Knowledge should become a link in the integration of science, education and agribusiness.
It is worth noting that additional budget funds for this program are not required. They are in a variety of state programs. NASEC proposes to unite all state tools for teaching rural residents farming skills - through the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Labor (Enbek Program) and the Ministry of National Economy (DKB Program), as well as from the regional budgets.
T. Rakhimbekov spoke about the initiative of the NASEC to develop programs for the development of scientific towns. Some of the institutions of the Center are located in rural areas and for 32 villages they are city-forming. They provide for the overhaul of social and engineering infrastructure, the construction of residential buildings, the creation of conditions for increasing the income of the self-employed. To this end, it is proposed to use the capabilities of all state programs - Nurly Zher, Auyl-el besіgі, Enbek, and the development of the agro-industrial complex. The implementation of this initiative will increase the attractiveness of villages for young scientists.
At the end, T. Rakhimbekov appealed to the deputies with a request to support the proposals voiced by the NASEC in the field of the development of agricultural science and its financing.
