FAO CROP AND FOOD SUPPLY ASSESSMENT MISSION TO MONGOLIA   - 16 October 1997

Trade and Markets Division

FAO CROP AND FOOD SUPPLY ASSESSMENT MISSION TO MONGOLIA - 16 October 1997

Autores

Descripción

In recent years, the Mongolian agricultural sector has been seriously and adversely affected by the transition of the country from a centrally planned to a market economy and by the withdrawal of substantial technical and economic assistance from the former U.S.S.R. Prior to these economic shocks, the country produced sufficient cereals, principally wheat, not only to satisfy domestic demand but also for export. Since 1990, however, the area harvested and yields have declined dramatically. In 19 96 grain production was some 70 percent lower than pre-1990 levels. The decline is largely attributed to the break-up and sell-off of state farms to farm companies under the economic reform programme, high indebtedness, reduced access to credit, high interest rates, a critical shortage of inputs and operational farm machinery and poor husbandry practices. In consequence, Mongolia now faces a serious food deficit and only produces some 60 percent of its estimated cereal needs. As a result, alt hough the country is not facing an emergency of a scale which may result in widespread famine, it does, like other transitional economies, have a growing population of vulnerable, low income people who have been experiencing a dramatic fall in nutritional standards due to a major deterioration in their economic circumstance.