Agriculture in Mongolia Under Pressure of Agronomic Nutrient Imbalances and Food Security Demands: A Case Study of Stakeholder Participation for Future Nutrient and Water Resource Management

Abstract

To gain independence from food imports, Mongolia’s agricultural system is facing significant changes with respect to land-use intensification and an expansion of arable land. The resulting depletion of nutrient resources was analyzed on the regional scale in a 3-year field study (2010–2012) in the Kharaa River basin in north central Mongolia. With a share of 20 % of the national crop yield of wheat, the Kharaa River basin is an important part of the national “breadbasket”. The results of soil surface nutrient balance for the agriculturally sown areas in eleven municipalities (sums) showed a significant negative balance for nitrogen and phosphorus (period 2008–2010). The average deficit for nitrogen is approximately −20 kg ha year⁻¹, and for phosphorus, this value is approximately −4 kg ha year⁻¹. The reason for these deficits is that the nutrients, which are primarily lost due to crop harvest, are neither replaced by natural input sources nor by the application of chemical fertilizer. Thus, a nutrient imbalance between rural and urban areas can be confirmed: area-specific nutrient emissions indicate that urban areas are “hot spots”, characterized by the accumulation of nutrients, whereas agricultural areas show negative N-balances with a continuously decreasing trend. With respect to future fertilizer demands, the identification of a sustainable land and fertilizer management practices is of high priority in order to achieve the demanded crop yields. To facilitate integration and inclusion of farmer perspectives, we conducted a participatory approach that also included the national and regional government levels. Several options for integrated nutrient-cycling strategies of cities and agricultural production will be presented and discussed.

Appendix: The Questionnaire

Foreword

The IWRM project “MoMo” (Integrated Water Resources Management in Central Asia: Model Region Mongolia) is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) in the framework of the “Research for Sustainable Development” (FONA) program (www.fona.de). During the project period 2006 to 2013 the development and implementation of strategies leading towards an integrated water resources management (IWRM) has been developed and locally adapted. More information about the project can be found at the official MoMo homepage (www.iwrm-momo.de)

The objective of the interviews was the integration of stakeholder participation, expert knowledge and the feedback of their willingness to adopt for future nutrient cycling methods. Therefore the main objective was the analysis of measures, their costs and efficiency for their implementation into future nutrient cycling strategies in Kharaa River Basin (KRB).

On the one hand we considered the development of strategic plannings for agriculture on aimag (Mongolian term for “province”) level (Darkhan Uul, Selenge and Tov aimags). On the other hand the participatory approach also included the perspective of the following levels:

• L1 = National Government (Mongolian Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry MOFA, http://www.mofa.gov.mn)

• L2 = Aimag level (Departments of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry (FALID) of Darkhan Uul, Selenge and Tov Aimag) and Soum (Mongolian term for countries) level (=Khongor (Darkhan), Sumber (Tov), Jargalant (Tov), Mandal (Selenge)

• L3 = Agricultural expert level (Plant Science and Agricultural Research Institute PSARI, Agricultural University Darkhan AUD)

• L4 = Level of farmers and agricultural companies including livestock herders

Block 1: General questions

• 1.1 Please give a short description of the main tasks and objectives of your Department (L1), your municipal authority (L2)/your working unit (L3)/your private company (L4)/your field of interest (L5).

• 1.2 Only for levels L1 to L3: What are the most important changes after the last elections for the National Parliament (June 2012) for the sector of Food Security and strategic development planning for agriculture?

• 1.3 Only for levels L1 to L3: What is the importance of the National Development and Innovation Committee (Is it belonging to the Ministry of Finance and directly mandated to the Prime minister?)

• 1.4 Only for levels L1 to L3: What is the current status on the legislative initiative for a “Crop insurance” to mitigate the risks in cropping sub-sector and to establish legal environment of the cropping sector?

• 1.5 Only for levels L1 to L3: What is the current status on the legislative initiative of cropland possession by crop producers in respective laws and legal acts to improve landuse?

• 1.6 Only for levels L1 to L3: What is the current status on the legislative initiative to legalize allocation of certain percentage of mining income to agricultural cropping sector development as investment?

• 1.7 Only for level L4: How much agricultural area is cultivated by your private farm or company? And how much of it belongs to fallow land?

• 1.8 Only for level L4: The agricultural area can only be used as a leasehold. What is the maximum time period of leasing the agricultural land? Would you prefer to be the owner of our land?

• 1.9 In total 519 crop producing entities and farmers with 102,000 ha cropland are situated within the Kharaa river basin. Could you give a short overview about the agro-economical situation in the Kharaa river basin? How many of the 519 crop producing entities can be allocated to small scale (<500 ha), medium scale (500–2000 ha) and large scale level (>2000 ha)?

• 1.10 Are any foreign companies active in agriculture and horticulture? If yes, please give details.

• 1.11 Are there any agriculture cooperatives in the Kharaa river basin? If yes, please give details.

• 1.12 Are there any Farmer Field Schools to promote knowledge of good management practice in agriculture and horticulture? If yes, please give details.

• 1.13 What are in your opinion the most relevant economical problems for agriculture and horticulture in the Kharaa river basin?

• 1.14 What are in your opinion the most relevant environmental problems for agriculture and horticulture in the Kharaa river basin? (e.g. erosion, insufficient plant nutrition etc.)

• 1.15 How important are these topics (Questions 1.10 to 1.14) for your activity or to what extent do they affect your interests?

Block 2: Soil fertility and crop yields

• 2.1 Only for level L3: Which system is used to have an index number for soil fertility?

• 2.2 Only for level L3: How does soil fertility vary in the Kharaa river basin?

• 2.3 What was the crop yield per ha for wheat and potatoes in the year 2011?

• 2.4 Which kinds of crop rotation systems are used in your area of interest? What are the benefits of those systems?

• 2.5 Where do you get your seeds from?

• 2.6 What is your experience with regard to reliability and drought-resistancy of seeds?

• 2.7 Only for level L3: How could seed quality and supply be improved?

• 2.8 Do you use fertilizer? If yes, which type of fertilizer? And where do you get your fertilizer from?

• 2.9 What is the price for fertilizer? (Tugrik per kg or tons)

• 2.10 Only for level L4: Do you use manure (e.g. from barnstables or sheep corrals) as natural fertilizer for horticulture? If yes, what is your experience?

• 2.11 Which kind of subsidies are provided by the government to buy fertilizer?

• 2.12 Which kind of loans are provided by the government or agricultural banks for investments in machines for seeding, ploughing, harvesting?

• 2.13 Are there any problems with soil salinization within the arable land? If yes, please give details to specify the location, explain the occurence and possible countermeasures.

• 2.14 Only for level L4: Do you own any livestock? If yes, how much sheeps, goats, horses, cows?

• 2.15 Is there any import of extra fodder (hay) for livestock into the Kharaa river basin? If yes, please give details.

• 2.16 Are there any conflicts between farmers and livestock herders? If yes, please give examples of conflicts and their possible solutions.

• 2.17 Only for level L3 and L4: Are there any cash crop rotation systems in combination with legumes? If yes, what is your experience?

• 2.18 Only for level L3 and L4: What is your general working scheme for ploughing, seeding and harvesting?

• 2.19 Only for level L3 and L4: Are any erosion control measures by preserving cultivation feasible? If yes, what are the additional costs for investment (a) and running costs (maintenance costs) (b) (Tugrik per ha) for the farmers?

• 2.20 Only for level L3 and L4: Are any erosion control measures by cultivation/ploughing parallel to the contours/slope feasible? If yes, what are the additional costs for investment (a) and running costs (maintenance costs) (b) (Tugrik per ha) for the farmers?

• 2.21 Only for level L3 and L4: Are any measures against wind erosion applied by planting shelterbelts? If yes, what are the additional costs for investment (a) and running costs (maintenance costs) (b) (Tugrik per ha) for the farmers?

• 2.22 Only for level L3 and L4: Which other measures should be implemented for erosion control?

Block 3: Irrigation and water consumption

In the Kharaa river basin different economic sectors (agriculture, households, energy, industry, horticulture, mining) use large amount of surface water and groundwater.

In the agricultural sector (and other sectors) several information gaps exist, which we need to reduce to establish a meaningful IWRM framework.

Several technologies are applied using surface and groundwater sources. We identified open canal surface irrigation using water from reservoirs; groundwater or surface water pumping for surface irrigation with tubes by individual farmers or companies, large sprinklers usually using groundwater; drip irrigation in greenhouses for vegetables using groundwater (and surface water?) by farmers and companies.

• 3.1 How many hectares are irrigated in the Kharaa River Basin using which technology (sprinkler system, open channel, irrigation well with aluminium pipes)? Please use Figs. 19.1 and 19.2.

• 3.2 Please allocate the irrigation users to the size distribution of irrigation schemes (four classes: 0–10, 10–50, 50–200, 200–500 ha). If possible, mark them on the map in Fig. 19.2.

• 3.3 Are there any programmes on national or Aimag level to support the rehabilitation of old irrigation schemes, to expand irrigated farming area, to introduce innovative irrigation technologies and to construct rain water collection systems? If yes, please give details.

• 3.4 What is the price for construction of irrigation systems as open channel (Tugrik per km length), sprinkler irrigation (Tugrik per ha of irrigation area) or other systems?

• 3.5 Are there any plans to build dams or reservoirs at Kharaa river for the retention and usage of surface water? If yes, where and to which extent?

• 3.6 How are water abstractions by agriculture managed? Are there any regulations? Or can they abstract as much water as they want?

• 3.7 Which restrictions or laws are relevant for the water management/water abstraction of the agricultural sector?

• 3.8 Is there any prioritisation of the water users in case of water scarcity (laws or regulations or recommendations)?

• 3.9 Which type of water fees apply for the different users and how much do they pay per m³?

• 3.10 What other users’ interests conflict with yours in the area of water consumption? Who is particularly affected by these interests?

• 3.11 What initiatives and measures do the affected people, NGOs or political organisations undertake in order to solve this situation?

Block 4: Food security

410,000 to 430,000 tons of wheat is required per year to satisfy the growing demand of the nation. 448,000 tons of wheat was harvested from 301,000 ha in 2011, fully satisfying domestic demand for wheat. For the future the preservation of this level has a high priority to become independent from imports. But: Analysis of soil samples indicated that 73 % of the total cropland of Kharaa river basin has low provision level of nitrogen and 35.3 % by phosphorus.

• 4.1 The priority of the government policy is to intensify crop production and irrigated farming, and to improve land efficiency. How would you evaluate the current institutional structure in this frame? What are its strengths and weaknesses?

• 4.2 During the last 50 years as a result of intensive cultivation practices the soil humus content has been reduced by 14.6–43.6 %. Which measures are necessary and feasible to increase the humus content of soil?

• 4.3 The total per capita annual excretion is about 4.4 kg of nitrogen and 0.5 kg for phosphorus. This is a valuable nutrient resource. Safe use of wastewater, excreta and greywater is an option for future nutrient re-use in agriculture of periurban areas. What is your opinion about products made from urine and faeces as fertilizer?

• 4.4 What policy could improve the water consumption sector (e.g. taxes, stricter controls, stricter laws and regulations, stricter targets, voluntary agreements)?

• 4.5 What policy could establish a nutrient recycling sector (e.g. taxes, stricter controls, stricter laws and regulations, stricter targets, voluntary agreements)?

• 4.6 What policy could improve transport and marketing of agricultural products (e.g. taxes, stricter controls, stricter laws and regulations, incentives)?

• 4.7 How would you evaluate the current institutional structure in this frame (Questions 4.4 to 4.6)? What are its strengths and weaknesses?

Block 5: Decision making criteria

Planning and implementation of measures for future nutrient cycling strategies requires a decision making process. With the following matrix we want to know the relevance of your decision making criteria. The question is:

Which criteria are relevant, if you have to make a decision for a new measure for nutrient cycling strategy (reuse of urine and feces from households). Please evaluate each of the criteria by marking it with a cross (X).

No.	Criteria for selecting measures to be evaluated in terms of importance in the decision-making procedure	Evaluation: This criterion is
		Indispensable	Very relevant	Relevant	Irrelevant
1	Technical feasibility
2	Low costs
3	High cost effectiveness
4	Low uncertainty in specificity
5	Regional socio-economic side effects
6	Ecological side effects
7	Assessment of health risk side effects
8	Public acceptance
9	Flexibility for necessary adaptions
10	Political acceptance
11	Market feasibility
12	Financial feasibility
13	Financial burden sharing of stakeholders
14	Organisation for the division of labour/duties
15	Evaluation of the effectiveness
16	Socio-cultural aspects

1. Additional question: Do you have questions or suggestions in relation to the questionnaire?