«Improved Cereal Production Technology» FAO Project on Conservation Agriculture in Mongolia

Abstract

Spring wheat production in Mongolia is mechanized through the introduction of techniques and farm equipment utilized by the Russians in the 1960s. The former state farms covered large areas of up to 20,000 ha under a centralized management with a paid labour force of some one hundred people. Since 1992, most state farms have been privatized and split into smaller units of 1000 ha and leased, for periods of up to 20 years, to private individual owners or to a group of owners as a shareholder company. Following the abandonment of many marginal state farms, the cultivated wheat area has decreased; consequently, there is adequate farm machinery to cultivate 300,000 ha of wheat. However, mounting production costs, the inability to obtain credit, scarcity and high cost of essential inputs (fuel, herbicides, fertilizers, spare parts etc.), inefficient farm machinery, decrease in prices and crop productivity have resulted in heavy indebtedness of farmers and many are on the brink of bankruptcy.