“IMPROVING FOOD SECURITY OF HERDERS’ POPULATION DEPENDENT

ON ANIMAL HUSBANDRY AND LIVING IN AREAS HIGHLY SUSCEPTIBLE

TO DZUD PHENOMENON” PROJECT

Monthly report
(Period: October – November, 2010)

This monthly report describes training activity organized among herders in the project 8
soums. All the cost related info is included in attached financial report.

As per the contract made between the Caritas Czech Republic (CCR) and the
Environment and Security Center of Mongolia, E&SCM is responsible for conducting the
series of training for 3600 herders to increase their capacity to reduce zud risks and
enhance the self preparedness of herders in anticipation of another zud in winter of
2010/2011.
The training is divided into two rounds and the first round took place in autumn of 2010.
The next round is planned to be organized in spring of 2011.

Current report shortly describes activities organized in the first round of training.

Training teams and their composition

Environment and Security Center of Mongolia (E&SCM) management has made an

optimal composition of trainers in accordance with the requirements of ToR and needs of
herders in Uvurkhangai province. The trainers have been selected based on their expertise
of topics, experiences working with herder communities and knowledge on local context
and the needs for reducing zud disaster risks.

Training teams and their composition are described in the following table.

Team No. Team composition Names of trainers

Team 1 1. Team leader, Mr. Erdenesaikhan N., team leader
psyhosocial trainer Mr. Nergui Sh., veterinary with work experience
2. team member- of 40 years in Uvurkhangai province, former
veterinarian director of aimag’s agricultural department
3. team member- Mr. Tumurchudur T., zootechnics with work
livestock expert experience of 30 years in animal husbandry
4. driver management in Uvurkhangai aimag, ex- soum
governor
Mr. Batmunkh, driver
Team 2 1. Team leader, Mr. Khorolgarav Ts., medical doctor with 20
 psyhosocial trainer years experience working among herders
2. team member- hay and Dr. Dejidmaa Ts., researcher on hay and fodder,
fodder expert at Institute of Animal Husbandry of Mongolina
3. team member- livestock Academy of Sciences (IAH, MAS)
expert Mr. Enkhtur S., zootechnics with work experience
4. driver of 25 years of animal husbandry management in
Uvurkhangai aimag
Mr. Urjin, driver
Team 3 1. Team leader, Mrs. Tumen M, medical doctor with 24 years
psyhosocial trainer experience in rural population services
2. team member- hay and Dr. Tsogoo D., hay and fodder expert, former
fodder expert employee of IAH
3. team member- Dr. Chutnai B., senior livestock researcher, IAH
veterinarian Mr. Lkhagva N., Livestock management student
4. team member- livestock at Mongolian Agricultural University
expert Mr. Munkhee, driver
5. driver
Team 4 1. Team leader, Dr. Batsukh Sh, senior fodder researcher IAH
psyhosocial trainer Dr. Dungu D., senior livestock researcher IAH
2. team member- Mrs. Purev J., veterinarian with 31 years work
veterinarian experience in Uvurkhangai aimag.
3. team member- Mr. Nyamaa, CCR driver
livestock expert
4. driver

Training topics covered

The first rounds training have been conducted in the following topics, which were
specified in the terms of reference.

- training on disaster preparedness and risk reduction of future dzud disaster

particularly for young untrained herders, including peer-to-peer sharing
practice;
- training on efficient livestock husbandry (including the building and
insulation of winter shelters), pasture management and fodder winter reserve
preparation;
- training for herders and selected soum and bagh representatives about health
and hygiene and the psychosocial hazards and help related to dzud
phenomenon.

At the training preparation stage, the training manuals for trainers as well materials for
distribution to herders- trainees during the training have been prepared by experts of
Institute of Animal Husbandry of Mongolian Academy of Sciences.

The manual is prepared in 60 pages of A4 size and handed in to all 12 trainers to use
during the training session.
The training distribution material in A4 size with 26 pages, including the cover, was
elaborated based on the content of above training manual. Upon review and incorporation
of comments from experts, the training distribution materials have been printed in 3600
copies before the training started.

The distribution material was highly valued by herders- trainees during the training,
which being used as reference material after the training.

Two samples of distribution materials, including training handbook and comics on good
and bad herding practices are attached.

Training time

The training took place in between 10 October and 30 November 2010. This period was
optimal for herders, because of two reasons. One is herders possessed enough free time to
attend the training during this period and the other is pleasant weather condition, which
allowed herders not to worry about their homes and animals back.

Beneficiary selection

Selection criteria for trainees have been clarified and delivered to soums governments for
their actions to provide a list of trainees in accordance with the selection criteria. The
criteria as follow:
i. Young herders
ii. Inexperienced/new persons to livestock husbandry
iii. Those, who lost substantial herds to last zud phenomenon
iv. Women headed households
As the training was conducted in the most devastated by 2009/2010 winter zud soums of
Uvurkhangai aimag, the selection of trainees was not felt difficult. 65-70% of all herders
in these 8 soums have lost fully or partly their animals.

Training agenda

Training agenda was developed with experts of animal husbandry of E&SCM in

accordance with the topics specified in the contract agreement. the topics and agenda
took into account all the needs of herders to reduce zud risks and preparedness for next
coming winter. The agenda consists of 4 parts. The first part is on psyhosociology, which
takes about one hour and the second and third parts are on zud preparedness, hay fodder
preparation and shelter insulation. The last or fourth part is about veterinary and hygiene.
The program continues in 6 hours with lunch and two short breaks between. Although we
have prepared additional 3 hour training program in case if timing allowed, most of
herders -trainees come late and we could cover the only basic program.
Considering the responses from trainees (trainees’ evaluation sheets) and soum bagh
governors, the agenda fully met all expectations of trainees. Results of trainees’
evaluation included in the last chapter of this report.
The following is the training agenda.

Part 1
Program on Psyho-sociology

Program content Timeframe

Psyhology
o Pre-zud psyho-sociology 50 min
o Post-zud psyho-sociology
o Common ways to relieve stress
Skill development practice to relieve stress 10 min
Total time 60 min
Part II
Zud preparedness and prevention

No. Program content Timeframe

1 а. Understanding of causes of drought and zud:
• Black zud
• White zud
• Blizzard zud
• Cold zud
10 min
• Compound zud
б. Climate change and its consequences
• Change in humidity and precipitation regimes
• Increased livestock
• Poverty
2 Pasture and its resource degradation
o Pasture, pasture resources, pasture hygiene
o desertification trend and its progress
• Vegetation cover change
10 min
• Scarcity of water resources
• Pasture il-practice
• Natural causes
• Human induced causes
3 Let’s keep the pasture healthy and alive as your milk
cow
10 min
• Economic value of pasture
• Pasture value common calculation practices
4 It is essential to keep the livestock in line with pasture 15 min
carrying capacity
• Pasture biomass intake rates of different kinds
of livestock per day, kg
• Actual pasture biomass harvest rate of livestock,
centner\ha
 • Practical pasture area around settled herders
houses in hectares
• Pasture utilization time of one herders
household in hours
• Calculation methods to determine pasture
normal or carrying capacity
• Practice
5 Degraded pasture restoration through fodder (perennial)
cultivation
• Justification
• Soil processing
• Sowing time
• Selection of seeds, sowing rates 10 min
• Methods for planting, planting techniques,
optimal seed plantation depths
• Irrigation
• Application methods, timeframe
• Alfalfa plantation: cost effectiveness
Tea break 10 min
6 Methodology for rotational utilization of pasture
• Methods to utilize pasture during cold seasons
10 min
• Methods to utilize pasture during warm seasons
• Methods to utilize snow covered pasture
7 Preparedness for cold winter to reduce risks
• Zud resistant livestock and its breeds
• Causes of livestock mortality when zud strikes
• First hand assitance in case of frozen livestock 10 min
• Caring of frozen livestock
• Methods for insulation of livestock shelter
• Livestock watering
8 Coping mechanisms against droughts and zud
• Zud prevention measures
• Organzational aspets to cope with zud
15 min
• Ways for zud recovery
• Indigenous methods to forecast zud
• Ways to reduce zud risks
Discussion 10 min
training duration 120 min
Total time 2 hours

Part III
Hay and fodder preparation, storage, shelter insulation

No. Program content Timeframe

1 • Current fodder production and its market condition 20 min
• Hay and fodder preparation and storage methods
2 • Discussion on soum, bagh and household level preparation status
 and its dimension and quality
• Methods: how to determine required volume of hay and fodder 10 min
3 • Common ways to restore degraded pasture
• To share results of a study on pasture restoration with herders using
whiteboard and facilitate discussion
• Increase prodictivity of hay making area with natural fertilizers 20 min
produced from animal dung
Tea break 10 min
4 • On-hand tools to prepare plant originated fodder 20 min
• On-hand tools to prepare Livestock originated fodder
• Mineral fodder preparation
5 • Partial sowing of fodders around livestock shelters in order to 20 min
increase fodder supply
• To get acquanted with cereal plantation around shelter locations
6 • Geographical aspects on selection of area to build livestock shelters 10 min
and its construction ways
• Insulation methods for keeping livestock shelter warm
7 Discussion 10 min
8 training duration 110 min
9 Total time 2 hours

Part IV
Veterinary and hygiene

Program content Time frame

One. veterinary
1 Common livestock diseases occured in Uvurkhangai region 10 min
2 zoonotic diseases their causes and ways to remedy 5 min
3 Parazit originated deseases their causes and ways to remedy 5 min
4 White tapeworm originated deseases their causes and ways to 5 min
remedy
5 Contagous deseases and ways to remedy 5 min
Tea break 5 min
Two. Hygiene
6 Hygeine of animal shelter 5 min
7 Hygeine during watering and soil hygiene 5 min
8 Hygeine on fodder and nutrition 5 min
9 Discussion on optimal compostion of varous kinds of livestock, 10 min
local productivity breeds, inbreading and hygiene
10 Discussion 10 min
11 training duration 60 min
 Training results

The first training started simultaneously in four locations on 11 October 2010. The first
team in Zuunbayan Ulaan soum, the second team in Sant soum, the third team in Tugrug
soum and fourth team in Hujirt soum. Detailed training dates, locations and number of
trainees are put in table 3. ECHO monitoring team from Brussels has also visited a
training place in Zuunbayan ulaan soum in first training day.

First round of training continued from 10 October to 29 November for about 51 days. In
total, 2224 herders of 41 baghs of 8 soums of Uvurkhangai aimag have attended the
training.

As per first planning, 1,800 herders should have attended the training. Thanks to mostly
favorable weather, we could train 424 more herders than planned before harsh winter
started. The training teams have conducted 139 trainings, in total. All herders and soum
bagh governors, veterinarian and medical doctors very much welcomed and appreciated
this training. Because, herders training was new and interesting to herders in these areas
and the topics covered all aspects of winter preparedness, zud risk reduction and
psyhosocial service.

First training day for herders of

Tsohiot bagh in Zuunbayanulaan Training in Shiveet bagh of
soum center on 11 Oct 2010 Hujirt soum center. 11 Oct 2010

Training in Zalaa baghTugrug

of Santsumiin surgaltiin zurag
soum center on 11 Octend oruulna
2010
Team 1 worked 40 days in the field. Conducted training in 5 baghs of Zuunbayanulaan
soum and 3 baghs of Taragt soum. With snowfall, it returned to UB. The other 3 baghs of
Taragt were closely located to team 2 and team 3 areas, these teams continued conducting
training in Ikhbulag, Altantal and Tuya baghs of Taragt soums after their trainings
organized in Sant, Bayangol and Tugrug soums.

The teams 2 and 3 have worked longest period (50 days) in the first round of training and
trained herders in 19 baghs of Bayangol, Tugrug, Sant and Taragt soums. Additionally,
they organized training in Shuranga and Buureljuut baghs of Uyanga. However, with
poor attendance of herders, the team 2 stopped its training in order to continue in next
round. Team 3 started training in Arvaiheer soum and conducted training for 58 herders.
With election and re-election activity organized in Arvaiheer soum coincided as well with
cold weather, the team 3 stopped the training to make it continue in spring of 2011.

Team 4 worked 25 days- in forest and forest-steppe soums herders usually live in
community of 3-10 households and this was suitable for the team 4 work effectively and
could training 16-30 herders a day. Upon completing their task to train herders of 5 baghs
of Hujirt and 5 baghs of Uyanga soums, team 4 returned earlier to UB, because of other
commitment of team members.

There are 1,376 herders remain to be trained in the next training round in order to achieve
the project objective and the baghs and soums to be covered in the next training are: Ult,
Buureljuut, Shurangat baghs in Uyanga soum, 8 baghs of Arvaiheer soum, Ikhbulag of
Taragt, Ikh Us bagh of Tugrug and remaining baghs of these 8 soums, where herders
could not participate in the training due to unavailability or not reached the
announcement.
 Table 3. Detailed information on herders training organized in 8 soums and their
baghs
Number of
Training
Baghs trainees Training dates Training Trainer’s team No.
Soums
attended days
Zuunbayan Tsohiot 48 11-13 October 2010 3 Team 1
ulaan Bayan ulaan 90 15-18 October 2010 4
Emged 87 20-23 October 2010 4
Tsahiurt 56 25-28 October 2010 4
Had 61 30 Oct- 2 Nov 2010 4
Devshil 50 16-19 Nov 2010 4 Team 2
Taragt Huremt 59 4-7 Nov 2010 4 Team 1
Arvain tal 71 9 – 12 Nov 2010 4 Team 1
Urt 59 14- 17 Nov 2010 4 Team 1
Ihbulag 27 21-24 Nov 2010 4 Team 2
Altantal 36 20-23 Nov 2010 4 Team 3
Tuya 72 15-18 Nov 2010 4 Team 3
Sant Zalaa 30 11-14 Oct 2010 4 Team 2
Maikhan 80 15-18 Oct 2010 4 Team 2
Ulaan Ovoo 89 20-23 Oct 2010 4 Team 2
Tsahiurt 78 25-28 Oct 2010 4 Team 2
Tsarig 108 30 Oct- 3 Nov 2010 5 Team 2
Bayangol Undur undes 76 28 -31 Oct 2010 4 Team 3
Tsaviin iher 73 2 -5 Nov 2010 4 Team 3
Haya 42 7-10 Nov 2010 4 Team 3
Shiree 42 11-14 Nov 2010 4 Team 3
Tsagaanbulan 93 6- 9 Nov 2010 4 Team 2
Ergen denj 72 11-14 Nov 2010 4 Team 2
Tugrug Hoolt 35 11-13 Oct 2010 3 Team 3
Bayan 77 14-17 Oct 2010 4 Team 3
Sain tugrug 81 18-21 Oct 2010 4 Team 3
Ih us 21 22-23 Oct 2010 2 Team 3
Mazar 34 25-27 Oct 2010 3 Team 3
Hujirt Shunkhlai 29 11-12 Oct 2010 2 Team 4
Gua 34 13-14 Oct 2010 2 Team 4
Berh 53 15-16 Oct 2010 2 Team 4
Uvurmodot 60 17-18 Oct 2010 2 Team 4
Uujim 35 19-20 Oct 2010 2 Team 4
Uyanga Badral 48 22-24 Oct 2010 3 Team 4
Jargalan 41 25-27 Oct 2010 3 Team 4
Taats 34 28-29 Oct 2010 2 Team 4
Ongi 29 30- 31 Oct 2010 2 Team 4
Shivee Ovoo 35 1-2 Nov 2010 2 Team 4
Shuranga 8 26 -27 Nov 2010 2 Team 2
Buureljuut 13 28- 29 Nov 2010 2 Team 2

Arvaiheer 4 –r bagh 58 25-28 Nov 2010 5 Team 3

Total
2224 139
trainees
Fragments of training activities:
Training evaluation

Each training session was organized in such a way that trainees’ knowledge evaluation
sheets distributed to 10% of total trainees before start and after completion of a training.
Thus, 219 trainees’ pre-training and 221 post-training evaluation sheets have been
collected and analyzed.

Training evaluation sheet included 19 common questions related with zud preparedness,
pasture management, hay and fodder preparation, common livestock diseases and ways to
cure and hygiene issues.,

Analysis of training evaluation shows that average knowledge of herders on proper

livestock management and hygiene before training was between 5.2-23.6% whereas,
knowledge on pasture, fodder and zud disaster and its causes was between 8.4-28.0%.

After training, knowledge obtained was increased by 31% and maximum 80% of training
program was retained by trainees. It is observed that respondents tried to answer the
questions with their training obtained knowledge, in detail.

Those respondents actively attended the training could answer 80-90% of total questions.
Those, who understood at medium level or those, who experience difficulty in writing
could answer 40-60%. In opposite, all respondents could answer 10-30% questions in
pre-training test material. Considering these facts, we conclude that herders, who
participated in our training program, increased their knowledge at least by 50%.

Lessons learned

Government planned activities such as seminars for soum and bagh staff, medical doctors
and veterinarians; national population census, local parliament election and re-election
have happened during the training session and negatively affect the delivery of training
announcements to herders and full attendance to training.

All of these planned activities should be learned and adjusted to the next training program
so that these are not interfering to herders training in spring.
Although we planned to use Bagh centers for training, most of these centers have been in
bad conditions i.e. very cold, without glasses in windows, because it is used rarely in
warm seasons to organize bagh meetings.

Herders are famous with their not punctuality in attending any events. It is
understandable with their livelihoods. However, this impacts training quality to some
extend. We forced to squeeze training program in a day in some cases.

The training schedule was changed 2 times. First because training manual and
distribution material were not published yet and we postponed. Second, poor attendance
of herders in some baghs forced us to re-schedule. For example, 6-7 herders attended
daily in Ikh bulag bagh of Taragt, Zalaabagh of Sant soum, Shuranga bagh of Uyanga
soum.
Announcement issue needs to be taken into account to ensure full awareness and
attendance.

The hardiest part was to collect receipts on money spent i.e. for lunch service, hotel
rooms, even for petrol in some soums. Because, rural service providers usually do not
have proper form of receipts with stamps. They rarely possess a stamp. There are two
reasons: one is to avoid income tax and second is they submit to local taxation office a
minimal fixed monthly tax, which does not require any records/ receipts on service
provided.

All above issues should be reflected in the next training session so that to make the
training most effective and efficient way.

The report is prepared by Mr. Erdenesaikhan

ANNEX

1. Reports of trainers’ teams (in Mongolian and hardcopy)

2. List of trainees-herders, who attended the first training session, by soum and
baghs. lists included in the trainers’ reports (in Mongolian and hardcopy)
3. Evaluation sheets of trainees (original materials in Mongolian and hardcopy)
4. List of soum, bagh governors and bag medical doctors trained on psyho-sociol
services (in English)
5. First training session financial report (in English)