Vegetables bring change in Mongolia

BY KEITH RAMSAY

Tearfund has wrapped-up a successful long-term partnership in Mongolia which has seen herders rebuild their traditional way of life despite freezing winters that were killing their livestock. The unlikely answer was radical—the humble vegetable.

Traditional herders have wandered the vast Mongolian steppe for centuries, grazing their livestock and living in Gers. Their animals have been their source of food and income. But over the last decade, their way of life has come under threat due to changes in the climate. Normal winter temperatures can be around minus 35ºC, but in 20092010 temperatures plummeted to minus 50ºC, causing 700,000 animals (40 per cent of livestock) to perish. Known as a dzud, these severe winters are becoming more frequent. A dzud is when animals die in vast numbers following dry, hot summers and icy winters. Another big one occurred in 2018.

After the 2010 event, the government asked Tearfund’s partner, Family Agricultural Resources Mongolia (FARM) to help families make it through these events with enough food and income to sustain them. What they came up with was radical for Mongolian herders and Tearfund began supporting the project in 2011. FARM was going to teach traditional herders how to grow vegetables commercially to feed themselves and earn a living. The income would help them to build up their herds again. Tearfund enlisted the help of New Zealand horticultural scientist, Marlon Stufkens, to help them grow vegetables in such harsh conditions with a short growing season. He introduced rammed-earth tunnel houses which extended the growing season.

Chogdon harvests her tomatoes.

Ian McInnes

Marlon also redesigned root cellars to store vegetables. The cellars have to be 4m deep so they are below the winter frost, otherwise, the vegetables would freeze.

There were many other challenges to overcome. Vegetables were not a regular part of the Mongolian diet, herding was their way of life, the growing season was short and many didn’t really know how to grow or use vegetables in their cooking. The challenge was to get them growing vegetables through communal vegetable gardens and selling what they produced.

How do you convince toughliving, poor nomadic herders to have faith in growing vegetables and be willing to change, when animals are their insurance, their livelihood, their food and their survival?

It was difficult at first to get them involved, but a few led the way, and now there are 12 cooperatives successfully market gardening with more than 560 active members. One of the early adopters was a woman named Chogdon. Chogdon and her husband were herders under the Mongolian communist system (all livestock were state-owned). When the system collapsed in 1990, they received 60 of their own animals from the government and by 2005, their herd had grown to 600. Sadly, in 2006, Chogdon’s husband died leaving her to take care of her six children. Then two consecutive dzuds and droughts occurred in 2009 and 2010 that left her with 20 sheep and goats out of 700.

“My situation in 2010 made me realise that I cannot rely on animals alone for support. Sometimes we had nothing to eat. It made me think of planting vegetables again.”

In 2013, Chogdon joined the programme. The 50 selected families chose her as the site leader because of her previous experience. “Every year our gardening skills and knowledge grew and our yields increased”.

This provided enough to eat and increased their income, she says. “In 2014, our participating households established a cooperative. We understood that if we worked together, we would have more success, more income and good livelihoods. This meant we could buy a few more animals and use the milk to make butter to supplement the income from gardening.” Chogdon says, traditionally her village has not had home gardens. People would buy vegetables like potatoes from surrounding villages but now the cooperative can supply and sell all their vegetables locally. In Oct 2013, Chogdon was voted the best gardener of Uvurkhangai Province. This greatly encouraged her, she says.

“I am grateful to Tearfund and the New Zealand Government for coming to our aid after we suffered in the dzud. Thank you to the people of New Zealand for their help.”

Five key achievements

1. Subsistence herders formed 11 cooperatives with each family earning a sustainable income from vegetables.

2. New greenhouse adaptation extended the growing season from four to six months.

3. The programme introduced the processing of vegetables, which included rhubarb. The communities had never tasted rhubarb, despite the fact it grows wild in the countryside.

4. The diet of nomadic herder families consisted mainly of meat. Now they serve vegetables as much as meat. And they are healthier for it!

5. Introduced a ‘Green Week’ in September. Growers come from all over the province to display their produce, pickles and preserves.