In Mongolia, Nomadic Herders practice millenary old pastoral herding methods and live alongside their animals, accompanying them to their pasture in a nomadic way, to find sufficient forage.
Mongolian herders collect Cashmere Fiber gently brushing goats at moulting time in spring, not sheering them, making their millenary activity totally Animal Friendly, opposite to intensive farming run in Inner Mongolia (China).
An increasing Global Warming makes them face harsh and unpredictable environments, whether that be droughts, storms and extreme temperature fluctuations which reach minus 55° in wintertime.
“Responsible Nomads” Code of Best Herding Practice ensure that participating Mongolian Herder Households and Cooperatives monitor and improve their animal welfare practices, making their unique nomadic pastoralism production of “Sustainable Cashmere” also animal welfare-friendly.
The Green Gold Animal Health Project, in collaboration with Mongolian Ministry of Agriculture and Light Indistry (MOFALI), and Mongolian General Veterinary Authority (GAVS), developed a digital Traceability System to register the Origin and Health of Livestock.
The database management was handed over to GAVS in November 2018, and MNFPUG worked on the implementation Nationwide of the system.
The Animal Health Monitoring System, or Integrated Veterinary System, allow MNFPUG’s Households to Certify the Origin and Health of Livestock.
The digital system helps to issue Veterinary Certificates based on Factual Evidence, and quickly provide the end user with product information.
In addition, thanks to the adoption of Near Field Technology (NFT) heartags, GAVS signed a collaboration agreement with the National Police Agency to curb Livestock Theft, and the system was expanded by connecting to the National Police network.
Since the expansion of MNFPUG’s Veterinary System Nationwide, soum veterinarians have issued 774.756 E-certificates to Herders and Buyers.
MNFPUG Union worked jointly with the Government of Mongolia to the implementation of a new Livestock Taxation, approved in January 2021, to limit animal stock growth, which will oblige Herders to focus onto Quality, not Quantity of their production.
MNFPUG worked with partners on organizing training for veterinarians and veterinary specialists, the provision of equipment for offices, laboratories, and animal health traceability systems, strengthening capacity, and constructing veterinary service buildings at SOUMs (group of Villages) and AIMAGs (Provinces) throughout Mongolia.
In collaboration with Government of Mongolia’s General Veterinary Authority (GAVS) and National Agency Meteorology and the Environmental Monitoring (NAMEM), MNFPUG also developed and approved a methodology for Detecting Antibiotic residue in meat and milk, improved relevant legislation, and strengthened the capacity of Soums’ Veterinarians.
The Premi Test, E-readers, and Unisensor tools approved and widely used in the European Union were provided by the project to detect Antibiotic residue.
The role of informed and experienced herders is very important for the early detection and prevention of infectious animal disease outbreaks. Therefore, in cooperation with the School of Veterinary Medicine of the Mongolian University of Life ( MULS), MNFPUG organize training on animal health for Nomadic Herders households; a training module on 12 topics and video lessons on five topics were produced to raise public awareness. In 2018-2020, 5.181 Nomadic Herder Households from the project SOUMs (group of Villages) received full trainings.
