The 2025 irrigation season has ended in Kazakhstan. According to the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation, the agricultural sector used 11.01 billion m³ of water, with 98% of the total volume consumed in the country’s arid southern regions.
During the irrigation season, the Almaty region used 1.6 billion m³ of water to irrigate 136,000 hectares of farmland, the Zhetisu region spent 1.2 billion m³ on 140,000 hectares, and the Zhambyl region irrigated 79,000 hectares with 1 billion m³ from the Tasotkel reservoir and the Shu and Talas rivers.
The Zhambyl region relies heavily on water from upstream Kyrgyzstan. During this year’s irrigation season, Kyrgyzstan committed to supply over 600 million cubic meters of water to Kazakhstan via the transboundary Shu and Talas rivers, which flow from Kyrgyzstan.
Kazakhstan’s Kyzylorda and Turkestan regions consumed the largest amounts of water on irrigation—3.5 billion m³ on 125,000 hectares and 3.4 billion m³ on 400,000 hectares, respectively.
Kazakhstan has taken efforts to expand the use of water-saving technologies, such as drip and sprinkler irrigation, to reduce the amount of water spent on irrigating the country’s vast farmland.
Since 2024, the government has provided farmers with subsidies for the introduction of water-saving technologies. The reimbursement rate for farmers’ costs for acquisition and installation of water-saving irrigation systems has been increased from 50% to 80%. These support measures have helped to expand the farmland area covered by water-saving technologies by 86%—from 312,200 hectares in 2023 to 581,000 hectares in 2025.
