Agroecology in the Gobi Desert (online)

Agroecology in Extensive Rangeland Pastoralism in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia

Only 1% of the arable land in Mongolia is cultivated with crops. The agriculture sector remains heavily focused on nomadic animal husbandry with 75% of the land allocated to pasture. Dundgobi province is located in the middle part of the Gobi Desert and is a vast dryland steppe with sparsely grown but highly nutritious grass such as wild leek and saxaul. The local community is actively involved in projects for planting trees such as elm and seabuckthorn, bushes and vegetables. The community is a good example of surviving under challenging climate conditions. Their initiatives involve building relationships between herding livestock in a traditional way and planting trees to cope with sand movement and land degradation and putting efforts into spring water conservation.