Grasslands of the World.pdf - Disasters and Conflicts - UNEP

ALICE CARLONI
Grazing management in Mongolia 271
Plate 7.4
Gers and autumn grass .
Crops and industry are very minor components in the present national
economy; mineral resources have yet to be tapped on any scale, the forest area
is relatively small and slow-growing. Agro-industrial processing, almost entirely
livestock-based, has contracted since economic liberalization. Traditionally,
herders did not till the land; their economy and life-style was entirely pastoral
and the climate gave little incentive to do so with the technology available to
them. A little irrigated cropping, mainly wheat and barley, was done in the
region of the Great Lakes and the grain parched and ground to a pre-cooked
flour (similar to the tsampa of Tibet ).
With the availability of suitable agricultural machinery during the second
half of the twentieth century, however, it became possible to undertake largescale
cereal production (Plate 7.5): in some of the less unfavourable areas of
Central Mongolia over one million hectares were cultivated. The land used
was, of course, among the best pasture . Some fodders (discussed in detail
below) and potatoes were also grown, but the area was small compared to that
of grain. The technology used, based on a rotation of alternating strips of crop
and fallow , was adapted from Canadian practice.
State farms and negdel (see Plate 7.6) in suitable sites produced enough grain
to satisfy the population’s needs – more cereals were eaten during the collective
period than previously or nowadays. FAO (1996) quotes a 40 percent reduction
in the consumption of flour. In a semi -arid area with a very short thermal
growing season, all agricultural operations must be carried out very rapidly,
especially seed-bed preparation and sowing; yield potential is low, so production
methods have, therefore, to be extensive . Considerable seasonal risk is