Agriculture in Mongolia

[1] However, the high altitude, extreme fluctuation in temperature, long winters, and low precipitation provides limited potential for agricultural development.

The agriculture sector therefore remains heavily focused on nomadic animal husbandry with 75% of the land allocated to pasture, and cropping only employing 3% of the population.

Animals raised commercially in Mongolia include sheep, goats, cattle, horses, camels, and pigs.

Populations suffer from more frequent and intense extreme weather events, especially brutal winter seasons called zuds that destroy forage and can decrease temperatures to around -50°C.

[5] While zuds used to occur about once every ten years, there have now been six in the past decade, with over six million animals (9% of total livestock) killed by these conditions in the winter of 2024.

[7] In the 1950s, agriculture began to adopt its present structure and modern techniques, based in part on material and technical assistance from the Soviet Union and East European countries.

The union elected a central council, the chairman of which was, ex officio, the minister of agriculture; it also adopted a Model Charter to govern members' rights and obligations.

State farms, compared with negdels, had more capital invested, were more highly mechanized, and generally were located in the most productive regions, or close to major mining and industrial complexes.

[7] Since its inception, the Mongolian People's Republic has devoted considerable resources to developing crop production in what was a predominantly nomadic, pastoral economy.

[7] Early efforts to force arads to become farmers failed, and the government turned to the creation of state farms to promote crop production.

Land reclamation started in the late 1950s and the early 1960s, when 530,000 hectares were developed, and it continued throughout each five-year plan.

Although sown acreage expanded dramatically between 1960 and 1980, output and crop yields remained stagnant and, in some cases, fell because of natural disasters and poor management.

[7] Small amounts of alfalfa, soybean, millet, and peas also were grown to provide protein fodder.

[7] Emphasis was placed on raising crop production and quality by increasing mechanization, improving and expanding acreage, raising crop yields, expanding irrigation, selecting cereal varieties better adapted to natural climatic conditions and better locations for cereal cultivation.

[7] It also meant applying greater volumes of organic and mineral fertilizers; building more storage facilities; reducing losses because of pests, weeds, and plant diseases; and preventing soil erosion.

[10] Vegetables like tomatoes, carrots, peas, beans, onions and cucumbers are grown in several oases in the South of Mongolia, e.g. in Dal in Ömnögovi Province.

[7] Policies designed to force collectivization in the early 1930s met with arad resistance, including the slaughter of their own animals.

[7] Collectivization and advances in veterinary science have failed to boost livestock production significantly since the late 1940s.

[7] The rise in crop production since 1940 has accounted for animal husbandry's decline in gross agricultural output.

Nevertheless, in the late 1980s, animal husbandry continued to be an important component of the national economy, supplying foodstuffs and raw materials for domestic consumption, for processing by industry, and for export.

Despite its economic importance, in the late 1980s animal husbandry faced many problems: labor shortages, stagnant production and yields, inclement weather, poor management, diseases, and the necessity to use breeding stock to meet high export quotas.

To alleviate labor shortages, the plan called for higher income, increased mechanization, and improved working and cultural conditions in rural areas to retain animal husbandry workers, particularly those with technical training.

Measures to raise productivity included increased mechanization; improved breeding techniques to boost meat, milk, and wool yields and to cut losses from barrenness and miscarriages; and strengthened veterinary services to reduce illness.

More efficient use of fodder was sought through expanding production; improving varieties; and decreasing losses in procurement, shipping, processing, and storage.

In addition, more concrete measures to improve the management and the productivity of animal husbandry were adopted in the late 1980s.

[7] Auxiliary farms run by factories, offices, and schools were established to raise additional pigs, poultry, and rabbits, as well as to grow some vegetables.

[1] Mongolia's vast forests (15 million hectares) are utilized for timber, hunting, and fur-bearing animals.

In 1984 a Mongolian source stated that the forestry sector accounted for about one-sixth of gross national product (GNP).

Fuel wood accounted for about 55 percent of the timber cut, and the remainder was processed by the woodworking industry.

[7] Mongolia's forests and steppes abounded with animals that were hunted for their fur, meat, and other products in the late 1980s.