Mongolia – Mongolians to shift from pastoralism to the intensive animal husbandry

The Government of Mongolia has approved the “National Program to Promote Intensive Livestock Husbandry” to regionalize and diversify livestock production, reduce imports, support exports, and improve the economic efficiency of intensive farmers. Agriculture plays a main role in the lives of the people in Mongolia, it employs nearly one-third of the workforce and generates more than 10% of GDP. There are 241,989 households, who are herders and run nomadic livestock farming with around 70 million livestock, while there are 2025 dairy farms with 97.6 thousand cows, 594 beef cattle farms with 28.6 thousand cattle, 127 fiber farms with 23.8 thousand sheep, and 1391 poultry farms with 991.8 thousand birds, 608 bee farms 13.5 thousand bees and 387 pig farms with 22.3 thousand pigs as of the end of 2020. The study concluded that 65% of the total pastureland of Mongolia, mostly in the central region, had been hit by some forms of land degradation, this led the government to focus on livestock farming and intensive agriculture.