New Delhi, April 14: This could be Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s dream project to solve his land problem. Send farmers unwilling to part with their plots to the vast plains of a former Soviet region.

Not Siberia, which would have been CPM icon Stalin’s choice, but Kazakhstan.

There, the farmers from Bengal could till the Steppes, growing rice, wheat, barley or cotton to sell in local markets at a good price.

It could happen if the Centre follows up on a suggestion from Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev, made during Vice-President Hamid Ansari’s recent tour of the Central Asian nation.

Sources said Ansari, who had gone mainly to discuss energy co-operation, was impressed with the idea.

“The Kazakhstan side said their country had drawn up a policy of leasing out land to foreigners for cultivation for 10 years,” an official here said.

“It’s only a suggestion; we need to work out the details before it can be turned into a concrete proposal.”

The former Soviet republic, five-sixths the size of India, has 8.2 lakh sqkm of arable land, sources said. But with a population density that is one-sixtieth of India’s, it hasn’t enough people to till all of it. So, over 6 lakh sqkm of cultivable land — about a fifth of India’s total area — grows only grass and hay.

Officials in Delhi said they were yet to work out details like land rent, how much of it is to be paid in cash and whether the Indian government will sponsor the farmers.

Geopolitics, though, should make Delhi keen on the scheme: China has expressed an interest, and Kazakhstan is rich in petroleum and natural gas.

The country is also one of the world’s top 10 grain producers, growing 14-15 million tonnes of wheat a year as well as rice. Livestock is a major source of livelihood, with the chief products being dairy goods, leather, meat and wool.

Bhattacharjee and Nazarbayev should be able to understand each other and do business.

The Kazakhstan President was the leader of the republic’s communist party when it broke away from the Soviet Union in 1991. Since then, he has embraced the market and carried out some economic reforms.

Bhattacharjee will also appreciate Nazarbayev’s long innings in power: he has been President since 1991, winning by huge margins amid allegations of rigging.

The Bengal chief minister, however, can only envy the way the President has ruled with an iron fist with little regard for free speech.