A total of 80 million head of livestock in Mongolia, owned by 142,500 households, is going to winter throughout the country in 2023-2024, the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry.

Livestock population has registered a rapid growth in recent years. In 2018, the sector produced 475 thousand tons of meat and 940 million litres of milk. Both milk and meat production have registered steady growth since 2010. The crop sub-sector continues to lag behind with negative growth rates in production of cereals and potatoes and near stagnation of vegetable production.

Growth in output of livestock products have primarily been driven by number of livestock rather than productivity. Overall, the sector generally remains characterized by low productivity due to underdeveloped animal health and breeding systems, high incidence of production and trade limiting animal diseases, lack of proper management of pastureland, and insufficient fodder and water supply. Pastures make up almost 95 percent of agricultural land; of which about 70 percent have degraded to some extent. All these factors have substantially increased risk to herders’ households, the quality of Mongolian livestock, and the health of the livestock industry.

The number of days of dust storms has increased significantly. Cold and snow damage called “Zud” (extremely cold situation where the temperature goes down to the range of 40-50℃ below zero) causes enormous economic damage when it occurs. The frequency of Zud followed a decreasing tendency until the early-1990s, but it has been increasing since then. About 70% of the grassland in the country is under the influence of desertification due to climate change as well as the anthropogenic factors including overgrazing of livestock, erosion of farmland soils, burning, and climate change.