Maksat says valley farmland should stop becoming house plots; no rule changed
The Lieutenant Governor asked the Ministry of Economy to count converted arable land, while district-level approvals continue as before.
KYZYL-ADYR — Lieutenant Governor Aidar Maksat told residents of Kyzyl-Adyr on Monday that the conversion of irrigated arable land in the Kara-Buura and Talas valleys into housing plots "should be halted", and asked the Ministry of Economy to report on how much land has changed use in recent years. No decree, ban or change to the rules was announced, and the practice under which plot conversions are decided at district level stays as it is for now.
Mr Maksat, speaking at a residents' meeting in Kara-Buura District on 26 October, put the position as the government's own and tied it to this year's harvest. Chu and Talas together produced a record crop, including 210,000 tonnes of potatoes, and he said land that had just delivered a bumper potato and grain harvest was too valuable to be built over. "A field that has fed us this autumn should not be a street next year," he said.
The request to the Ministry of Economy carries no stated deadline. Asked on Wednesday whether a date had been set and what the report would draw on, ministry press secretary Bekbolot Sherov said the request had been received and that the ministry would report to the Lieutenant Governor when its figures were ready. He did not say which register the count would use or whether the result would be published.
“The water still reaches those fields, and the owners are selling them for plots”Aibek Sadyr uulu
The most concrete complaint at the meeting came from Aibek Sadyr uulu, a farmer from Taldy-Suu. Edge-of-village fields near Kyzyl-Adyr, he said, are being sold for houses while the irrigation canals still serve them. "The water still reaches those fields, and the owners are selling them for plots," Mr Aibek told the meeting. He said buyers fence the land first and ask about the canal afterwards.
The Herald asked the Kara-Buura District administration how many conversions it had approved in recent years. Its head, Jyrgalbek Osmonaliev, said approvals follow the district's existing procedure and that the administration would supply figures to the ministry on request. Under the arrangement as it stands, district administrations, whose heads are appointed by the Governor, decide whether a plot changes use. Nothing announced on Monday alters that, so the call is, for now, a statement of intent.
Dr Myktybek Abylov, an agronomist at Talas State University, said that irrigated valley land is the hardest to replace. Once a field is built on, he said, the canal share goes with it and the land cannot easily return to crops. He also noted that this year's glut cuts both ways. Potatoes sell at about IS 2 a kilogram, so a farmer weighing a good harvest against a cheque for a plot may still choose the cheque.
The timing matters to builders. The Herald reported on 16 October that Talas building permits had risen 13% while building costs rose 18%, and city hall plans new flat blocks. Ulan Chorobaev, director of Talas Turak-Jay Kurulush, the developer of the 495-flat mortgage complex due in 2027, said his project stands on city land, but that developers and landowners elsewhere now want to know what "halt" means for plots already approved or in the pipeline. "With costs up 18%, nobody can plan on a word," he said.
What the Herald could not establish is how many plots have changed use, or who holds a complete count: district administrations decide conversions, and the ministry has yet to say how it will compile one. Whether a halt would reach plots already sold, approved or fenced, and what authority would enforce it, was not addressed at Monday's meeting. The Herald will report the ministry's figures when they are available.
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