Tengri News reports the Agriculture Minister said: "According to the preliminary information of agricultural departments of Kazakhstan's oblasts, the plan is to sow crops at the area of 21.4 million hectares, which is almost at the level of 2012."
Mr Mamytbekov continued: "I have to say that this information is very close to the actual numbers. This has been achieved over the last two years of continuous control, including with the use of the space monitoring. The areas of the spring sowing make 18.6 million hectares. 15.9 million hectares will be used for sowing grain crops, including 13 million hectares for wheat."
According to the Minister, the wheat-growing area is expected to shrink by 468 thousand hectares and rice-growing area will be cut by 5.7 thousand hectares compared to 2012 areas.
Meanwhile, the area for growing priority crops like corn and grain will be expanded by 5.6 thousand hectares and areas under other priority crops will grow by 76.8 thousand hectares.
The area under oil-bearing crops will reach 1.9 million hectares, which is 43 thousand hectares more than the last year's level. Forage crops will be sowed at the area of 3.1 million hectares, which is 265 thousand hectares more than in 2012.
