Interview Questions: Notes and Drafts

Livestock Policy Department Head

Манай судалгааны гол зорилго:

1. Малчид, жижиг дунд үйлдвэрүүд (мах, сүү, ноос ноолууран бүтээгдэхүүн) экологи, эдийн засгийн өөрчлөлт, тодорхойгүй нөхцөлд хэрхэн дасан зохицох чадвартай вэ?
2. Энэхүү дасан зохицох чадварыг хэрхэн үнэлэх, төр засаг болон о/у-ын төслийн шугмаар хэрхэн дэмжих вэ?

Энэ асуудлыг нийгмийн ухааны талаас нь судлахад:

1. Төрийн болдлого, зохицуулалт болон о/у-ын төсөл малчдын өдөр тутмын үйл ажиллагаанд хэрхэн нөлөөлж байна вэ?
2. Малчид, бусад этгээд гаднаас шинэ мэдлэг авч амьдралдаа хэрхэн хэрэгжүүлж чадаж байна вэ? Ж. нь:
   • бэлчээрийн даац, ургацын прогноз
   • төслийн шугмаар нэвтрүүлж байгаа мал маллагааны дэвшилт технологи
   • ноос нолуурын урамшуулал авах, хоршоо байгуулах тухай практик мэдээлэл
   • зах зээлийн үнэ ханшийн мэдээ
   • улсын, олон улсын стандарт
   • гадаадын зах зээл, худалдан авагчдын сонирхлын талаарх мэдлэг

One of the aims of our research is to investigate how governance (Government and international organizations' policy and activities) is experienced by herders. Specifically: what knowledge do producers have of government policy, opportunities to participate in projects, how to organize cooperatives etc.? To what extent are they able to make use of outside knowledge--especially "new" knowledge--in adapting to changing economic and market conditions: rangeland condition and pasture capacity prognoses, guides on herding "best practices", information about premiums, knowledge of market pricing and conditions, national and international standards, or the interests of domestic purchasers and foreign buyers? How does this knowledge affect effective participation in governance, including rangelands use?

From the perspective of government policy, I am interested in discussing several broader areas of activity that have impacts on how producers live, but are not directly controlled by herders themselves. Specifically, I am looking at how herders adapt to various governance and market activities of which they have imperfect knowledge, and limited control.

Governance activities in this area relate to the coordination of rangeland resource use, monitoring and control of production chains, commodity exchange, investment in processing, subsidies and technical assistance to producers, and export.

I would like to hear the perspectives of people in government, development projects, and processing companies, to see how knowledge issues and different perspectives affect adaptability. What do herders (and government, or processors) need to know? How can governance better take into account adaptive capacity of herders, and the sector as a whole?

• Thoughts about the proposed Rangelands Law, why it would have been important, and why it did not pass. Also, what local and international experiences were reflected in the drafting of this law, who specifically was involved, whether there were difficulties in reaching agreement within the ministry.
• Thoughts about the Commodity Exchange Law: how the Government identified this as a priority; expectations about how this will be implemented and supported on the ground
• Issues perceived by the government related to the challenges and limitations of communicating with producers through several levels of government or through dispersed projects (e.g., establishing cooperatives, rangeland use coordination, etc).
• Limitations of development project-based governance, specifically: lack of continuity of funder objectives; lack of follow-up; mismatch of interests between funders and government; low capacity for local government to support project initiatives so as to make them self-sustaining.
• Areas that, from the government policy office perspective, deserve the greatest attention from (1) international organizations and projects, and (2) investors in the agriculture sector.

• The ADB report, its recommendations, and why many of those recommendations have not been implemented (e.g., herder cooperatives, better coordination of rangeland use)

• How to encourage use of domestic supplies and domestic production? (e.g., powdered milk; cashmere exported to China)
• Investment in intensive vs. extensive production.
  • Issues of competition between farming and herding. The relationship is in some respects adversarial, even though herders can benefit from companies such as Gacuurt. Many herders feel that they are being systematically squeezed out, and that government supports only large-scale, intensive production. This is an issue of interest to us because small-scale, extensive production can actually be more flexible and "healthy" in environmental and human terms (organic production).
  • Small-scale production. In Canada, the average dairy farm has 72 cows, even though there is a consolidation in the processing sector. There are economies of scale, but larger operations present environmental risks (e.g., groundwater pollution), are not necessarily as flexible in the face of changing markets, and are less "natural" since they are primarily feedlot-based. In the Mongolian case a large proportion of industrially packaged milk is made from reconstituted milk powder.
  • Subsidies. Smaller, semi-intensive dairy producers consider that they don't have adequate access to improved breeds, unlike large-scale producers. Similarly, there is investment in, for example, Gobi cashmere but less so for smaller producers.
• How to improve standardization (food security), marketing, and export. How effective is the marketing committee?
• Migration issues (and rights to mobility, etc.).
• Areas that research (in general) could focus on in order to be of the most use to government policy, within the scope of the theme of "adaptation to ecological and economic change and uncertainty".

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