Kazakhstan's wheat system: priorities, constraints, and future prospects

This paper provides an overview of Kazakhstan's wheat system following inde pendence and identifies policies and constraints currently influencing the operation and development of the system. It also looks at the factors affec ting production decisions, including the current operating environment, int ra-sectoral linkages, and overall macroeconomic conditions and identifies s everal alternative sources of productivity growth that can potentially impr ove the current and future competitiveness of Kazakhstan's wheat producers. The paper emphasizes that the wheat system cannot operate in isolation fro m the rest of the economy. Regaining lost levels of productivity can only b e accomplished with some level of coordinated policy Linking the priorities of the wheat system with those of the agricultural sector and the economy as a whole. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.