Page | 37cattle/yaks, sheep) either declined or increased only slightly during this period. The
severe zud in 2010, which led to a 27.7% reduction in Mongolia’s total livestock herds
compared with the previous year, hit the goat population the hardest. For the first time in
five years, Mongolia’s sheep population outnumbered its goats.^185
Cultivation.................................................................................................................
Overall, only about 10% of Mongolia’s
agricultural production, measured by value, comes
from food crops.^186 It is not surprising that
Mongolia grows little food, given that only 0.75%
of the nation’s land area is arable.^187 Wheat,
potatoes, and various garden vegetables are the
primary food crops.^188
During the period following World War II,
Mongolia’s socialist government attempted to
increase crop production—mostly grains—by cultivating previously unused areas for
crops. Farming practices were also modernized, which increased yields, and by the mid-
1980s Mongolia was self-sufficient in grain production.
(^189) Beginning in the early 1990s,
however, when state farms were disbanded, a large amount of the wheat acreage began to
fall out of production. Some of this land simply reverted to steppe, but even where
farming continued, yields were significantly lower than before.^190
(^185) Mongolian Views, “Livestock Population Decreases 27.7 Percent,” 12 January 2011,
The primary reason for
this decline is that many credit-strapped farmers could no longer afford seeds, fertilizers,
http://www.mongolianviews.com/2011/01/livestock-population-decreases-277.html
(^186) Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, “FAOSTAT: Commodities By Country:
Mongolia: 2008,” 2011, http://faostat.fao.org/desktopdefault.aspx?pageid=339&lang=en&country=141
(^187) Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, “Mongolia: Quick Country Facts,” 2011,
http://www.fao.org/countries/55528/en/mng/
(^188) Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, “FAOSTAT: Commodities By Country:
Mongolia: 2008,” 2011, http://faostat.fao.org/desktopdefault.aspx?pageid=339&lang=en&country=141
(^189) Lester R. Brown, “Chapter 3 Data: Eroding Soils and Expanding Deserts: Grain Production, Area,
Yield, Consumption, and Imports in Mongolia, 1961–2010,” in World on the Edge: How to Prevent
Environmental and Economic Collapse (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2011), http://www.earth-
policy.org/books/wote/wote_data
(^190) Lester R. Brown, “Chapter 3 Data: Eroding Soils and Expanding Deserts: Grain Production, Area,
Yield, Consumption, and Imports in Mongolia, 1961–2010” in World on the Edge: How to Prevent
Environmental and Economic Collapse (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2011), http://www.earth-
policy.org/books /wote/wote_data