UC Davis Blum Center for Developing Economies

In 1992, the Mongolian People’s Republic officially became recognized as simply “Mongolia” after it adopted a democratic constitution, and, equally important, initiated a dramatic shift from 70 years of socialism to a market economy.  For the first time in over 2,200 years of statehood, Mongolia established the institution of private land by allowing for private property ownership by citizens with the exception of pastures and areas designated for public use. [i]   However, the significance of keeping about 82% [ii] of Mongolia’s land (an area that is nearly twice the size of Texas in total) free and open to the public while also trying to promote land privatization has caused significant conflict, particularly in peri-urban areas.  My research of peri-urban livestock production near the capital city, Ulaanbaatar, produced some interesting stories of this tension.  These stories will take us on a journey through two of the areas that I visited during my research: B...

In mid-July, I found myself speaking to a 73-year-old herder in the county of Bornuur, about 100 km outside of Mongolia’s capital city, Ulaanbaatar.  He represented a typical household in my survey sample, though slightly older.  The herder owned just over 200 head of livestock (comprised mainly of sheep and goats) and moved his yurt home (“ger”) multiple times throughout the year within the same township in search of better grassland for his herd.  He had previously lived nearly 1,000 km from Ulaanbaatar in Zavkhan Province, but moved close to the city due to the negative effects of harsh weather (“dzuds”) and to pursue more economic opportunity.  Near the end of our survey interview, I asked him what he knew about intensive livestock production strategies.  He answered with a tinge of excitement in his voice that if I was interested in what most Mongolians called “farming”, then I should go see the “number one farmer” nearby. Semi-nomadic herding househol...

According to a new study , four billion people live under conditions of severe water scarcity for at least part of the year, which is twice the number previously estimated 1 . The discrepancy arises from the fact that previous estimates used annual data, which masks month-to-month variability and significant parts of the year where severe water scarcity may exist. This idea resonated with me, as I had been feeling the effects of water scarcity both at home and at work. I was living in Cali, Colombia while working as a visiting researcher at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT by its Spanish acronym) through the Research and Innovation Fellowship for Agriculture (RIFA). One might be forgiven for thinking of Colombia as a water-rich country after seeing images of the Colombian Amazon or the forested slopes of the Andes mountains. Indeed – the two wettest locations on earth are arguably in Colombia (Puerto Lopez and Lloro), each receiving 12 – 13 meters of rainfall ...

Will I leave the country and this system not be complete? As I stated before, I had the great realization that things would not be done at my time, that I could l keep trying to fight the system, but eventually things would be done at Dominican time, and that meant slowly. So, I just say that it was with much effort and commitment from everyone that the system was finished before I left!!!! It was such a feeling of relief and amazement. Thanks to the collaboration from everyone that went, and from Nadya all the way skyping from California we turned the pump on and the sprinklers looked majestically! I have to skip over the part where it took 7 men, and 6 hours to get the pump to prime, and having to get into the river to adjust the check valve and filter and hose, and then having to bring buckets of water from the river to the pump….because I would need six pages to describe the madness. But within the madness there was glory, and all the step backs and challenges made seeing that w...

          Viviana and I planned this project for months, but as often happens with international development projects, nothing went according to plan! After rearranging our schedule a couple times so the trip would take place at the perfect point in my pregnancy (month 5!), Zika virus swept through the Caribbean and Dominican Republic was placed on the CDC no-fly list. The recommendation across the board at the time was that I shouldn’t travel to any country with Zika, and so Viviana had to take the lead on the field design part of the project with me assisting from back in California.                         Besides being disappointed to miss the trip (and the chance to meet with other UC Davis International Agricultural Development friends working in Haiti!), this situation introduced a lot of challenges. My job as the irrigation engineer was to make sure all th...