When access to financing slows down the transition to a sustainable agricultural model

Context

With its nomadic and semi-nomadic population, Mongolia has historically been a land of pastoral herding. Over the years, and particularly since the fall of the USSR, the country’s population and lifestyle have changed. Agriculture developed massively, with large production basins, alongside a rural population marked by the exodus of its inhabitants and the strong urbanization of the cities. 

Today, Mongolia is nearly self-sufficient in grain, but imports are still important for agriculture in order to meet the growing demand from large urban areas. The price and quality of goods imported from its Chinese neighbor remain controversial, and despite the financing of some specialized farms, the need to develop local agriculture is felt.  For small farms, the fabric has been built up over the years and represents a promising employment pool. However, the investment and innovation capacity of these SMEs remains limited. 

The bioclimatic solutions proposed by Geres reinforce farmers’ ability to develop perennial agricultural production. And, in order to ensure their replication and reinforce their implementation, Geres supports its beneficiaries in the design of a financial investment model. In Mongolia, 75% of the vegetable production workforce is made up of women, in an ecosystem that is still predominantly patriarchal. The aim of these financial models is also to increase women’s access to financial services and property ownership. 

This new program therefore offers an innovative approach, as it also supports its beneficiaries in the autonomous financing of sustainable, unheated agricultural solutions. The idea is to highlight the importance of small-scale producers and ensure their economic viability, in response to the country’s problems

Strengthening women, food security and France-Mongolia cooperation, among other objectives.

Objectives and solutions

• Sovereignty and food/nutritional security : just like France, Mongolia is in need of a strengthening of its food self-sufficiency in order to cope with climate changes, the unstable global context and the sanitary conditions for imported goods. These challenges are part of the national food security program created by the Mongolian president, to reduce dependency on imported foods from China and or Russia and to reinforce the local production of the country. The country is also facing another sanitary issue concerning the reduction of meat consumption due to the high incidence of cardiovascular diseases in Mongolia. This program while reinforce the mongolian food security and increase the nutritional values of the goods produced.
   
• Fighting against climate change through the implementation of sustainable agriculture : the passive solar greenhouses and bioclimatic cellars are both innovative means that are sustainable, energy efficient and resilient facing the climate changes. While helping the deployment of these innovative solutions, we contribute to the fight against climate change and the development of a new agricultural model.
   
• Reinforcing the cooperation between France and Mongolia : France and Mongolia have a bilateral relationship linked to the importance of agriculture in the economy as well as in their traditions and societies. The french minister of agriculture has recently been to Mongolia to exchange with his mongolian counterpart on various bilateral cooperative subjects, such as agriculture and market gardening. With many years of experience in Mongolia, and its headquarters localized in the South of France, Geres worked on the implementation of the program between mongolian and south-french farmers.
   
• Reinforcing rural populations’ entrepreneurship : the program will help mongolian entrepreneurs in the creation of business plans to dynamize the agricultural and farming sector and help investments towards sustainable agriculture and passive solar solutions.

A clear focus on women farmers as beneficiaries of this support

Beneficiaries

• 2 cooperatives benefiting from the construction of passive agricultural solutions and the transfer of knowledge from Geres, i.e. 20 people (60% of whom are women).
  
• 30 market garden cooperatives benefited from an adapted business plan and associated training.
  
• Through the dissemination of the business tool, several other cooperatives will be able to use it and this will contribute to a better livelihood conditions for their relatives thanks to increase of their turnover.

   

Technical Partners

• National Association of Mongolian Agricultural Cooperatives For the baseline study of financial capacities of the cooperatives, dissemination of the business tools, as the design of the recommendation and their advocacy. 
• Selenge Province
  To support the project on the identification of Regional development funds, the dissemination of the findings and the recommendations.
• Mongolian University of Life Sciences
  About the preliminary soil study mandatory before building the agricultural passive solutions and the dissemination of the business tools through their website and/or curriculum
• National Committee in Gender equality
  To ensure the consideration of specifics constraints of women vegetables growers in the full scope of activities..