1. BACKGROUND

Mongolia is a landlocked developing country (LLDC) in central Asia bordered by the Russian Federation to the north, China to the south and Kazakhstan to the west. It has a low population of 2.6 million people in a country of 1.5 million km². The short summers are dry and hot, but during the long, freezing winters, temperatures can drop below -30 degrees centigrade with strong winds. Around 40 percent of the population lives in sparsely populated rural areas, leading a semi-nomadic lifestyle. Mongolia’s livestock graze for about two thirds of the year on natural pastures. Starting from October, pasture grasses and vegetation are frozen and dried out, and lose their feeding potential. Livestock then face a shortage of protein. During the winter and spring seasons, yield of pasture declines by 33-73 percent which affects the availability of fodder as well as protein. At this time livestock only have 40-50 percent of the required nutrient intake, and lose 28-36 percent of their live weight.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, Mongolia lost its subsidies and its markets and the economy collapsed. Gross domestic product (GDP) fell sharply from US$1 645 per capita in 1989 to US$393 in 2003, taking Mongolia from the status of a second world country to that of a third world country. A process of de-industrialization has left the Mongolian economy dependent mainly on services, mining and agriculture (especially cashmere); although agriculture is vulnerable to drought, land degradation and severe winters. During the transition of the 1990s livestock were privatized, and many industrial workers turned to herding to earn a living. Head of livestock increased sharply during several years of moderate climatic conditions from the 26 million maintained under the soviet system to 33 million, despite the collapse of centralized fodder production and distribution.  However, between 1999 and 2001, Mongolia suffered from two harsh winters and dzuds (any condition that stops livestock from grazing grass). Millions of animals, already weakened from poor pastures due to summer droughts and locusts, died from starvation. More than 3.5 million animals died in 2000 and another 4.7 million in 2001. Over 10 000 herders were left with no livestock and thousands more families lost most of their herd. Many people new to herding concentrated around water sources and soum (county) and aimag (province) centres, which led to problems of overgrazing and land degradation in areas close to population centres.

Mongolia's official statistics show that fodder production fell by two thirds during the transition period, due especially to closure of state farms that cultivated fodder crops under irrigation for feeding green and for conservation as hay and silage. In 1986-1990 fodder was cultivated on 117 thousand ha, and silage was made from 26 thousand ha. Compared to this period production of hay from natural pastures fell from 1 154 to 689 thousand tons in 2004; straw from 114 to 22 thousand tons; green fodder from 256 to 4 thousand tons; perennial grasses from 22 thousand tons to nil; other fodders from 160 to 16 thousand tons, silage from 278 to 1 thousand tons; and total "fodder units" from 994 to 357 thousand tons. Since the transition hay harvested from mature natural pastures by herders and contractors has been the mainstay of fodder available to both herders and intensified livestock producers.

During the soviet era Mongolia exported both livestock products and cereals from collectives and state farms to other parts of the union. During the transition these markets collapsed, and only half of the previous 1.2 million ha of croplands is currently cultivated. State marketing organizations are similarly closed, so that whereas Mongolia was previously self-sufficient in milk and meat, 80 percent of the urban market is now supplied from imported products.

Since 1999-2001 livestock production within 200 km of Ulaanbaatar and other cities is being intensified, compared to traditional semi-nomadic herding, supported by the Government of Mongolia:

• Integrated crop and livestock farms are encouraged in Selenge, Tov and Bulgan aimags for commercial animal production.  These include farms for milk production (121 farms with an average of 27 cows); meat production (beef) (10 farms with an average of 60 cattle); and wool and fibre production (8 farms with an average of 500 sheep and goats).  These farms graze livestock on natural and improved pastures in summer, and have started to conserve specially grown fodder crops as silage or hay for winter feeding.
• Many herders have settled as commercial milk producers in the peri-urban districts of Ulaanbaatar and Darhan (82 farms with an average of 20 cows). These milk producers graze improved cows locally and purchase all fodder as hay from pastures.
• Semi-nomadic herders, whose seasonal camps are adjacent to soum and aimag centres, and are interested to sell milk to these centres in order to sustain their livelihoods.
• 29 pig and 23 poultry units in the 3 aimags and 2 peri-urban areas.

Fodder and feed development is therefore required to develop intensified livestock production:

• Integrated crop and livestock farms to grow new selected varieties of annual and perennial fodder crops under rainfed and irrigated conditions respectively, for conservation by modern methods as hay and silage to feed their own animals - and to sell improved fodder conserved as hay to herders with camps adjacent to aimag and soum centres to raise their winter animal production, with transport of surplus fodder for sale to peri-urban producers;
• Crop farmers to adopt a new cropping strategy that includes use of new annual fodder crops including legumes as break crops in rainfed rotations, and 3-4 years alfalfa plus annual fodder crops as break crops in irrigated rotations. This fodder to be conserved using modern methods as hay, or processed as dried fodder cubes and pellets, for sale to peri-urban milk and meat producers;
• Rations for milk and meat production based on the new conserved fodder crops need to be developed, for feeding to crossbred and pure Simmental and Black & White cows;
• Improved compound animal feeds need to be formulated and produced by feed mills for feeding by commercial milk and meat producers as supplements to conserved fodder crops.

These fodder and feed development programmes meet the requirements of the Government Regional Development Concept, the Food and Agriculture Policy and the Intensified Livestock Production Development Support Programme of State Ih Hural of Mongolia. Expected results include "...increase in productivity with growth of the incomes and living standards of the intensified livestock farmers, and improvement of the population food supply in regional and local development centres and settlements".

This TCP request has been given high priority by Government and the TCP will liaise closely with other projects in Mongolia that support fodder development by herders and farmers.

2. OBJECTIVES

The objective of the project is to increase the quantity and quality of fodder available to market oriented livestock farmers in the Central region through the introduction of modern fodder production technologies, the establishment of demonstration farms for producing and conserving fodder, and the setting up of a sustainable fodder supply in Mongolia.

Specifically the project aims to:

• Improve, through capacity building, farmers' fodder production and conservation technology and to introduce advanced methods so as to increase fodder output as well as to improve livestock feeding practices;
• Establish, through institutional building, appropriate sized fodder systems and supporting facilities, including the setting up of small and medium sized fodder production and conservation units for demonstration;
• Introduce new improved fodder crops and varieties suited to both the local dry and harsh rainfed environment and refurbished irrigated farms, for seed multiplication and extension of the most suitable fodder crops and varieties.

3. OUTPUTS

The major project outputs are expected to be:

• Farmer, herder and feed manufacturer groups formed as focal points for training and demonstration for the project - through the Agricultural Extension Centres; 
• New fodder crops and varieties introduced, and evaluated under rainfed and irrigated conditions, through contracts with international and national institutions and farmers' groups;
• Seed multiplication of selected varieties of fodder crops established under contract on registered seed multiplication farms within seed certification schemes for each crop - through contracts with farmers and the Crop Promotion Fund and supervised by the Plant Science and Agricultural Research and Training Institute (PSARTI);
• Modern techniques for fodder conservation from fodder crops as hay and as silage demonstrated on integrated crop and livestock farms and on crop farms through farmers' groups;
• Plans for a demonstration unit for processing alfalfa to dried pellets with facilities to compare three production methods prepared for funding by a third party donor;
• Plans for a project on modern methods for processing straw into improved animal feeds prepared for funding by a third party donor;
• Improved rations for milk cows and growing cattle formulated through a contract with AHRI, and evaluated and demonstrated with herder, farmer and peri-urban livestock producer groups;
• Improved compound animal feeds for ruminants formulated with the animal feed producers group through a contract with AHRI, and evaluated and demonstrated  with herder, farmer and peri-urban livestock producer groups; and
• 140 public and private technicians and 600 farmers and herders trained in the production, conservation and feeding of improved fodders and animal feeds.

4. IMPLEMENTATION

The international Fodder Production and Conservation consultant undertook a 4-week inception mission in October/November 2007 when with project staff and national consultants the project workplan was drafted. A further mission followed in May 2008.

5. RESULTS and CONCLUSIONS

The project will be implemented in the period October 2007 to October 2009 and results and conclusions will be added in due course.