ULAANBAATAR, May 8, 2015—The Ministry of Food and Agriculture and the World Bank released a comprehensive review of Mongolia’s agriculture sector today at a joint workshop on “State Policy on Food and Agriculture” .
The review identifies ways to transform the agriculture sector from low-input subsistence herding to a highly productive sector capable of supplying external markets with quality wool, meat, and milk products.
“Mongolia’s path to transforming the agriculture sector lies in making a sustained investment in science and technology to address productivity gaps, diversify agricultural produce from wool to quality meat and milk products for export,” said Charles Annor-Frempong, Senior Rural Development Specialist at the World Bank and task team Leader for the review.
The science agenda can also address the sustainability of Mongolia’s natural resource base, including soils, water, pasture and climate change. Increasing levels of production without putting in place adequate natural resource management systems would endanger the country’s already fragile resource base and the future of its agriculture sector.
The review examines key constraints in the sector including inadequate government budgetary support and interventions, subsidies, lack of institutional support for extension and research, and underdeveloped external markets.
“The agriculture sector in Mongolia plays an important role in the economy. We hope that this comprehensive sector review will help the government of Mongolia focus its long-term agricultural development and strategically identify domestic and export markets,” said James Anderson, the World Bank Country Manager for Mongolia.
The sector review is comprised of a synthesis report Agricultural Transformation in Mongolia: The Path Forward, along with four separate companion reports:
- Improving Public Expenditure in Mongolia: Empirical Evidence of the Effectiveness and Efficiency of Agricultural Public Expenditures in Mongolia;
- Estimation and Analysis of Agricultural Subsidies;
- Agricultural Productivity and Marketing
- Agricultural Risk Assessment.
These reports were made possible through the support of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
