Mongolia’s SMART-Herders Project Brings Climate Support to 4,000 Herding Families

SMART-Herders will work in Bayankhongor and Dundgobi, identified as the two hardest-hit provinces, to help families build resilience that lasts beyond a single weather emergency.

For herding families in Mongolia, a dry summer or a punishing winter can threaten both their livestock and the income they depend on. A new three-year project launched today will support 4,000 herding families in Bayankhongor and Dundgobi provinces, helping them protect their animals, manage their pastures and earn a living as extreme weather becomes more frequent. Named Sustainable Pasture Management and Adaptation with Resilient Technologies for Herders in Mongolia, or SMART-Herders, the project brings together practical support for water access, weather warnings and places to process and sell livestock products.

Changing weather puts herders' livelihoods under pressure

Mongolia is warming far faster than the global average, with drier summers, harsher winters and much of its grazing land drying out. Herders face the devastating effects of dzud, a severe winter phenomenon in which extreme cold, heavy snow and thick ice stop livestock from reaching the grass they need to survive. The loss of animals can leave families with fewer sources of food and income, preparing for difficult seasons an essential part of protecting their livelihoods. SMART-Herders will work in Bayankhongor and Dundgobi, identified as the two hardest-hit provinces, to help families build resilience that lasts beyond a single weather emergency.

A US$2 million grant from the Adaptation Fund will finance the project, which is managed by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) in partnership with the Office of the President of Mongolia and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). Nii Quaye-Kumah, IFAD Country Director for Mongolia, described herders as people who understand their land and climate deeply but are facing rapid changes in the weather they grew up with. He said the project would bring water closer to pastures, provide warnings before difficult winters and create better opportunities and places to sell their products, helping families continue making a living from herding.

Water, training and safer places to sell

The project will build two solar-powered water stations and 40 small earth banks designed to catch and retain rainwater, addressing water access as pastures become drier. Four flood-safe centres will give herders places to store, process and sell wool, hides and dairy products, connecting the protection of livestock with the income families can earn from them. These investments respond to several pressures within the same household: animals need reliable access to water and grazing, and the people caring for them need facilities that help turn their work into earnings without exposing their products to flood damage.

Training will reach 4,000 herders through 144 field schools covering pasture and livestock management, with women making up at least 40 per cent of participants. The project will connect a national database to early warning systems so herders receive earlier information about droughts or severe winters. Having that information sooner can give families more time to prepare for conditions that threaten their animals, and the field schools will help them strengthen the everyday management decisions on which healthy livestock and sustainable grazing depend.

Earlier pasture improvements offer a foundation

SMART-Herders builds on an earlier IFAD-financed project in Mongolia that ended in 2023 and reached more than 137,000 people. Its impact assessment found that participating herders managed grazing land more sustainably and increased their winter feed reserves, providing evidence of improvements in both pasture care and seasonal preparation. Long-term photographic monitoring recorded better pasture conditions at nearly twice as many sites inside the project areas as outside them. Those findings give the new programme a practical foundation for supporting families whose future depends on keeping their land productive and their animals healthy through increasingly difficult seasons.