ADRA Mongolia’s Food Security Program works towards improving security of food at the community level through diversified agriculture. The primary focus of the program is to enhance household food security through supporting vegetable growing on individual and community plots.

Supporting Rural Livelihoods through Improved Food Security

This project is in the third year of five years, and works with eight community-based agricultural cooperatives in Zavkhan to improve their access to food and the availability of vegetables in the region. The cooperative members include a wide range of men and women, the majority of which were previously unemployed and migrated from the deep countryside following the loss of their traditional livelihoods herding livestock.  Project participation is dependent on formal registration as a cooperative, and a proven track record in previous years in terms of agricultural yields, off-farm activities, and solid cooperative governance.  Overall, some 368 cooperative members and their families are supported through this project. In 2009 the project provided training to the cooperatives in wool processing, food processing, protected cultivation, and organic pest control. The cooperatives received practical training through field visits to each other’s gardens, and study trips to agricultural areas in other parts of Mongolia. The harvest this year remained good, despite a very dry summer, and promotion of saving of potato seed for the 2010 harvest was reinforced through the construction of three root cellars. This project is in partnership with ADRA Canada and funded by CIDA.

Key Food Security activities include -

Providing food and non-food materials and training to individual households and cooperatives, supporting vulnerable households as they learn new skills to help them meet their daily food needs, providing practical nutrition, food preparation and storage information to rural populations.

Highlights -

Repurposing an abandoned building in Tosensengel soum to be an all weather, heated greenhouse. The pilot greenhouse project extended the normal growing season for vegetables from 90 days to over 120 days; further increases are planned for 2010.

Reinforcing Food Security at Community Level through Diversified Agriculture

This project is in the second year of a three year project. The project works with 600 householders in four locations helping their families improve their access to food through vegetable gardening. This year the project continued to provide technical support in organic gardening methods, with a resulting harvest yield of 328 tons of vegetables.  The project staff also focused on sustainability by working with each family to set aside seed potato for storage over winter and use in 2010. The families selected in this project are from poor backgrounds and usually need constant access to cash through the sale of excess vegetables from their harvest. This year the families were able to put aside a significant amount of seed potato in root cellars for use in the 2010 season. This project is in partnership with ADRA Canada and funded by the Canadian Foodgrains Bank.

Sustaining the Season

This project commenced in April 2009. It is based in Tosensengel soum, Zavkhan, and works in partnership with a local community-based agricultural cooperative. The project has three components: the rehabilitation of a derelict building into an all-weather greenhouse; the establishment of a community-led system of food security assessment; and the establishment of a regional training facility that will provide training to community-based agriculture cooperatives in Zavkhan in protected cultivation methods. Tosensengel is known as the coldest place in Mongolia in winter, with temperatures dropping to -40 C. Currently there are only 90 days in summer where it is possible to grow vegetables unprotected. This project will pilot methods of protected cultivation including row covers, “cool” house (a greenhouse heated to 2 C) utilization and intensive and multiple cropping strategies to maximize the harvest that can be grown. The project uses organic gardening methods.  During 2009 the all-weather greenhouse was constructed, with the immediate result of an extra 40 days of harvest from the crops inside. The project also conducted training in food processing techniques, and market research in Tosensengel regarding potential demand for additional vegetables. A trial of kimchi (a variety of Korean pickles) production was conducted in the soum market, with the result that the cooperative is now planning to grow and produce the vegetables which are needed to make the most popular kimchi from the trial, as additional income in 2010.  This project is in partnership with ADRA Australia.

Food Security is defined as: the availability of food; the access of people to food; the utilization of food; and the stability of food supply. ADRA Mongolia implements food security projects in Zavkhan and Bayankhongor aimags.