Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev. (Akorda.kz)

Kazakhstan land protests widen in challenge to leader

Reading Time: 2 minutes Almaty | Reuters — Hundreds of people staged street protests in two cities in Kazakhstan on Wednesday over land reform, Kazakh media and local activists reported, a rare act of defiance that could pose a challenge to the leadership of President Nursultan Nazarbayev. The protests, a continuation of demonstrations that began on Sunday, were sparked […] Read more

Kazakhstan’s Deputy Prime Minister Bakytzhan Sagintayev met April 14 with EU agriculture commissioner Phil Hogan. Government officials quoted Hogan as noting “wide prospects of co-operation in the agricultural sector.” (Government.kz)

Kazakhs stage rare protest over farmland privatization

Reading Time: 2 minutes Almaty | Reuters –– Hundreds of people held a rare public protest in the Kazakh oil industry hub Atyrau on Sunday against new regulations which they fear will allow foreigners to buy local farmland, although the government has said this would not happen. The central Asian nation, whose area is roughly the same size as […] Read more


grain being loaded onto a ship

Canada on the fringe of the grain export market

In a world where a country’s market power starts with its grain storage capacity, we’re losing ground fast

Reading Time: 6 minutes Canada’s performance, its objectives and its market power as a grain producer and exporter have changed significantly since the mid-1900s. Unfortunately those changes have not always been positive. In 1966 Alex McCalla, who was then at the University of Minnesota but who would go on to become one of the world’s top economists studying agricultural […] Read more