Abstract/Summary

The government of Kazakhstan is currently developing policies to stimulate milk production at an industrial production level through creating co-operatives. Their main target members are rural households, who are currently responsible for producing most of the milk consumed in Kazakhstan. In order to analyse and identify the determinant factors behind rural households’ motivation to join/create co-operatives and likewise public support for the government policy and in order to estimate its monetary value, a survey was used to collect information from 181 randomly selected rural households in the Akmola region and 307 randomly selected Kazakh citizens. The bivariate probit model was used to jointly analyse rural households’ intentions to join/create a production co-operative, accounting for the impact of psychological factors and socio-demographic characteristics along with each household’s attitudes to risk, their production structure, level of information about the government support programme and co�operatives, and cultural aspects as well as the household’s proximity to the main market. In addition, the drivers associated with public support for such a policy were examined using a contingent valuation method. These include psychological factors, the individuals’ views on the country’s former regime, their awareness of the governmental policy, their socio�demographic characteristics, and their household location. Their willingness to pay (WTP) for the policy was analysed using an interval regression model. Additionally, we examined changes in individuals’ WTP before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to indicating the determinants behind rural households' intention to join/create a production co-operative and Kazakh citizens' willingness to support the policy on co-operatives, the results of the study revealed that a third of rural households were interested in the policy. Moreover, the social value of the policy was found to be equal to the cost of the whole program after 10 years, indicating public support for this policy amongst Kazakh citizens. Taking into account these results, guidance for policymakers was prepared.