TY - JOUR T1 - Soil conservation and agricultural land use issues in Kazakhstan JF - Journal of Soil and Water Conservation SP - 382 LP - 388 VL - 48 IS - 5 AU - Yacob Maul AU - Vitaly Garmanov AU - J. Sanford Rikoon Y1 - 1993/09/01 UR - http://www.jswconline.org/content/48/5/382.abstract N2 - ORE than 197 million hectares (403 million acres), or 81 percent of all land in Kazakhstan, is used for agriculture (5). This pattern reflects the priorities given to agricultural land use in Kazakhstan under previous Russian and Soviet regimes (3, 7). Planned development of irrigated lands in the south and conversion of the so-called Virgin Land steppe areas in the north to grain production during the 1950s and 1960s contributed greatly to the increase in numbers of hectares devoted to crop production. At the same time, the government initiated several pasture and grassland programs targeted toward increasing herds of cattle and sheep. Today, 997 percent of lands characterized as arable and about 78 percent of all other lands are used in agriculture, Eighteen percent of the country's agricultural hectares are used for crop production and the remainder is comprised largely of grassland and livestock range. Grain hectares (23.3 million) comprise more than two-thirds of all crop production. This domination is most pronounced in the northern steppe region where grain production, particularly spring wheat, comprises 93 percent of all crop hectares. In terms of livestock, Kazakhstan presently has approximately 36 million sheep and goats … ER -