Agriculture and food security

SDC is one of the largest donors in Mongolia's agriculture sector

Given its importance to national economic growth, SDC is continuing to focus its interventions on the sector, which has elicited impressive results. Within the next programmatic period, emphasis will be placed on food security, with increased productivity identified as a means to achieve this outcome, which in turn will generate jobs in rural areas and support more sustainable herder livelihoods.

SDC’s Agriculture and Food Security domain is aimed at increasing incomes and creating better livelihoods for vulnerable rural populations. In order to realise these objectives, SDC will focus on the following:

(i) Improved productivity of herders and farmers;
 

(ii) Improved access to markets for herders and farmers; and
 

(iii) Improved livelihood security for herders and farmers.

In relation to increasing the productivity of farmers, emphasis will be placed on improving animal health, providing vegetable seed, and the establishment of extension systems and market linkages.

Building upon its past achievements, SDC will continue to invest in the improvement of veterinary policy and associated legislation, as well as in the control of animal diseases and the strengthening of veterinary education through its Animal Health Project. At present, brucellosis and foot-and-mouth disease are hindering the development of Mongolia’s meat exports.

The lessons learnt from SDC’s successful Mongolian Potato Programme will be applied to vegetable seed.

Pasture-Users’ Groups, established with support from the Green Gold Project, will be linked with national extension agencies, and attention will be paid to those agricultural sub-sectors that have the potential to improve market opportunities for poor herders.

Rural livelihoods will be more secure if livestock is insured, if subsidies are well-targeted, and if user rights and long-term measures for sustainable natural resource management are legalised.

Disaster risk reduction will be supported through the continuation of the livestock insurance scheme.

Improving pasture management and integrated water management will also remain key SDC focus areas.

SDC is implementing a number of projects under the Agriculture and Food Security (AFS) domain.

Download the facthseets of the projects:

Farmer working in a maize field in Nicaragua
Farmer working in a maize field in Nicaragua ©SDC

In many developing countries, agriculture plays a highly important role in terms of food security and is often a significant contributor to the national economy. By supporting farmers in the areas of production, marketing and the sustainable use of resources, the SDC is making a substantial contribution to poverty reduction.

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