Pasture lands of Kazakhstan: rational use

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The goal is to find ways to solve problems of pasture use in Kazakhstan using GIS technologies; conduct monitoring of pastures based on remote sensing of land (ERS); identify the condition of pasture lands using the NDVI index. Methods – analytical, economic-static, monographic, abstract-logical. Results – space monitoring was carried out, their degradation was assessed using remote sensing based on images received from the Planet satellite through the portal https://www.planet.com/. It has been established that pastures in the category of agricultural lands account for 45.1%, reserve lands 66.6 million hectares, which can be considered as a reserve for agricultural use. The cultural and technical level of pasture lands is characterized by the indicators of overgrazing, stoniness, forest cover and bush cover. Based on the research, it was concluded that used pasture lands are located mainly around rural settlements (Rural Settlements). Grazing of livestock on remote and distant pastures is impossible due to the lack of pasture infrastructure. As a result, pasture lands near the RS are under excessive pressure, which leads to a reduction in the number of livestock and, accordingly, livestock products. The analysis showed that since 2012, the total area of pasture land in reserve lands has decreased by 20 thousand hectares and increased in the category of agricultural land. Conclusions – pasture land use requires a revision of the institutional framework for pasture management. Competence on these issues must be transferred from district executive bodies to local government. It has been determined that due to non-compliance with animal grazing standards, pastures are trampled, resulting in a decrease in their productivity and a decrease in size. An effective tool is a system of remote monitoring of pastures, combined with ground surveys of land. This, in turn, allows us to objectively assess the condition of pasture lands at various scales. The republic has a huge potential of natural pastures, which is not sufficiently used to create a sustainable food supply and obtain environmentally friendly and cheap livestock products.