Pavlodar Region moves farmland lease tenders online

Pavlodar Region is changing the way it leases out agricultural land. The whole procedure, from filing an application to choosing the tender winner, will move online. More documents will be required, however.

Murat Khamitov, head of the region's land relations department, described the changes. Until now, a tender listing gave the plot's area and stated whether a land management project existed. From now on, local executive bodies will also have to provide a soil quality map. Only plots whose soil was surveyed within the last 15 years will be put up for tender. They must have soil bonitet (quality rating) results, geobotanical characteristics and data on the quality of the land and soil.

Agricultural land is currently leased for terms of 10 to 49 years. Under the current rules, the region has held 35 tenders and transferred 343 plots covering a total of 214 thousand ha. Preparing a plot for tender takes up to 90 days, the notice stays on the website for 45 days, and the tender itself takes three hours.

Khamitov expects the new system to cut the timeline by a factor of two to three. "We think a plot will be auctioned off within a month," he said. However, soil has not yet been surveyed on every plot. Where quality data is missing, less land may be available for tender.