The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) said on 6 October that a three-year SMART-Herders project had launched in Mongolia to help herding families cope with harsher weather. It is intended to reach 4,000 families in Bayankhongor and Dundgovi provinces and is financed by a US$2 million grant from the Adaptation Fund. IFAD is managing the project with Mongolia’s Office of the President and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).

Planned work includes two solar-powered water stations, 40 small earth banks to capture rainwater and four flood-safe centres for storing and processing wool, hides and dairy. The project also plans 144 field schools to train 4,000 herders in pasture and livestock management, with women expected to make up at least 40 per cent of participants. A national database will be connected to early-warning systems. These are project plans; IFAD’s announcement does not say the stations or centres have already been completed.