Page 52 - bne_March 2021_20210303

52 I Eurasia bne March 2021
A herder collects snow to be melted down into drinking water.
Mongolia’s pitiless dzud
Anand Tumurtogoo in Ulaanbaatar
The dzud is a peculiar weather phenomenon unique to Mongolia in which every few years
a summer drought combines with
a harsh winter. Nomadic herders can only despair as piles of dead, frozen sheep and goats stack up across the steppes, dead from either starvation
or the cold. It is not uncommon to see
a frozen animal dead on its feet.
Following the dry summer of 2020, most herders, mainly in the central provinces, were not able to prepare hay in the autumn because of degraded grazing lands. Thus, many were forced to buy fodder at high prices. This was
a heavy blow to a great number of herders, particularly those who, given the disruption caused to trading by the coronavirus crisis, were unable to sell their primary source of income, cashmere wool.
As of February 17, food and agriculture ministry data showed 402,300 livestock had died nationwide in Mongolia from
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the 2020/2021 dzud (sometimes spelt zud). The figures broke down to a list of devastation that included 2,100 camels, 17,200 horses, 36,600 cows, 123,300 sheep and 222,900 goats. In all, the dead animals were equivalent to 0.6% of the country’s livestock.
The highest number of livestock deaths were in the central regions, mainly in Arkhangai province (26,200 animals), Bayankhongor province (196,200), Gobi-Altai province (30,500), Uvur- khangai province (31,400) and Tuv province (35,600).
These numbers, however, are relatively low when held up against the more than 8mn livestock that perished in the dzud of 2010 or the more than 12mn lost from 1999 to 2001, infamous years that brought the worst dzud period in Mongolia’s history.
Towards 40% of Mongolia’s nomad population depend on animal husbandry for their livelihood.
In 2006, a UN research paper on Assess- ments of Impacts and Adaptations to Cli- mate Change (AIACC) noted the follow- ing in describing the three-year dzud: “More than 12,000 herders’ families lost all their animals, while thousands of families had to subsist below the poverty line. Some people who lost all their animals even committed suicide.
“Such a long-lasting (three consecutive years) winter dzud followed by summer drought had not occurred in Mongolia in the last 60 years. Mongolia’s gross agricultural output in 2003 decreased by 40% compared to that in 1999 and its contribution to the national gross domestic product (GDP) decreased from 38% to 20% (Mongolian Statistical Yearbook, 2003). The livestock sector has become more destitute.”
Accursed year
As Mongolia’s latest winter loomed closer, the signs of it fast becoming severe were unmistakable. Herders in the central regions realised they had no