In September, an on-going series of herder training began in the joint SFA x ICCAW Code of Practice in Cashmere Goat Welfare. The training began in Erdos City and the Yingen Sumu area of Inner Mongolia and was followed by interviews and the inspection of farms of the Ordos Cashmere Group, which were individually assessed on their animal welfare standards. 

In the training, Mr Ayoshi Yongxi, the president of ICCAW, explains the basic principles of animal welfare and emphasises the importance of animal welfare of cashmere goats to the international market. The training sessions are delivered by researchers and professors from the Inner Mongolia Agricultural University.  

The topics covered include: 

• The animal welfare of goats in terms of feeding, drinking water, pen environment, breeding management, and cashmere harvesting from the perspective of the five basic principles of animal welfare. 
• Cashmere Goat Disease Prevention and Health Management 
• Cashmere Goat Welfare Breeding and Cashmere Quality Improvement 
• Cashmere Goat Nutrition  

As part of the SFA’s Covid-19 Action Plan, a two-day Business Development Training for Herding Organisations has been held this week in Ulaanbaatar. The aim was to develop business management capacity for herder organisations and cooperatives to trade in raw materials and to increase governance at community organisational level.

A key focus of the SFA’s Covid-19 Action Plan is to reduce the economic vulnerability of herders through increasing economic literacy and their business development training.

The training was well attended with 50 participants, including 39 Herding Organisations Leaders from 35 soums across 10 provinces.

The training was delivered by speakers from the SFA, the Export Development Programme, the Employment Promotion Project and Mandakh Universities and topics included:

• The need for transparent and socially responsible livestock production, raw material preparation, quantity and quality assurance. Ensuring the active participation of cooperative members in conducting trade and preparation of livestock raw

• An introduction to the technology, innovation and increase in productivity of processing and how cashmere sorting and storage impacts this.

• Instructions for implementing registration systems for raw materials entering a supply chain, covering labels, packaging and transaction certificates. Experiences of those participating in the SFA Chain Of Custody Pilot in 2020.

• How to attract funding and collaborate with international and national projects and local government organizations.

• The methods of evaluation of labour participation, services and assets of cooperative members.

• The calculation and distribution of income and expenses of cooperatives and organisations.

• Economic incentives based on the performance of quality indicators, differentiated pricing systems, and potential difficulties and risks.

• Negotiating and evaluating the terms of trade agreements.

• The opportunity to meet with representatives of the raw materials processing industry.

Grasslands are fundamental to the cashmere supply chain and the Mongolian government is proposing an International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists. Here’s a short film about pastoralists around the world and their importance. Or visit https://iyrp.info/ to find out more about the initiative.