SUCCESS STORYTHE PATH FROM

A SMALL HOUSEHOLD FARMER TO A LOCAL WEALTH CREATOR

GOVERNMENT OF MONGOLIA

A young man in his early 20s, who was registered as unemployed in

Bayankhongor province labour department received a call from local Ca-

reer Guidance Center inviting him to visit the center. This call was indeed a

turning point for him and his family.

Not being able to cover the tuition fees, Ya.Chagnaadorj left his studies

with a major in accounting and decided to start his household farming

business with six milking cows. Being a child of herdsmen, Chagnaadorj

thought that accounting was not really his calling, but the best thing hap-

pened from studying in accounting class was that he met his future wife

Bayasgalan there.

In 2013, Bayankhongor province had faced a severe win-

ter. Chagnaadorj’s parents who had yaks, sheep and goat

lost a lot of livestock due to cold weather and lack of

fodder. This incident made Chagnaadorj to go on with

settled farming rather than traditional nomadic way of

herding. But he and his wife lacked knowledge and ex-

perience in running profitable intensive dairy farming.

The milking cows they had, only yielded 3 liters of milk

in winter and 8 liters in summer days. Both, working

from 6AM in the morning up to 10PM in the evening,

the household income barely reached 0.8million MNT

per month. This was spent out on household expenses

plus fodder and other items for milking cows.

In summer, cows would produce more milk,

but excessive milk that was not sold was

spoiled and wasted.

For A.Enkh-Amgalan, a career guid-

ance counselor at the Career Guidance

Center, which was established by SDC

funded Youth Employment Support Pro-

ject at Bayankhongor Polytechnic College,

it was one of the numerous calls she had to

make every day to local unemployed people. Being an

experienced counselor who provided individual coun-

seling to 500 people and group counseling to around

40,000 people, Enkh-Amgalan advised this young cou-

ple to take one year intensive class on integrated crop

and livestock farming, which was also a product of Youth

Employment Support Project.

Chagnaadorj and Bayasgalan now proudly say that stud-

ying in one year course at Bayankhongor Polytechnic

college provided them a wealth of knowledge that they

were so keen to learn, starting from how to manage a

crop and livestock integrated farming business

profitably, down to details of planting fodder

and producing silage. According to the

course instructor G.Tseren, this training

curriculum has been developed for more

than two years under the SDC Project

and was launched in 2014. Since then

over 68 students had completed this

training course. Many of them are now

successfully running their businesses in-

2014.09.16

2016.11.07

Youth Start-Up Pitch Event

at Bayankhongor Province

Career Guidance Center at Bayankhongor

Polytechnic College

YOUTHEMPLOYMENTPROJECT

Ulaanb

aatar ci

ty, Mong

olia

January

, 2017

CONTACT INFORMATION: Youth Employment Project, Suite #602, Blue Mon center,

6th floor, Youth Avenue, Sukhbaatar district 14200,

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Tel/ Fax: (976) 77116171 E-mail: Info@yep-gfa.mn Web: www.yepp.mn

dividually or as part of collectives they formed. Among them, the instructor

recalls Chagnaadorj and Bayasgalan as very enthusiastic, hardworking and

always in search of new ideas young couple. He said that

“Tasting their new product – a frozen yogurt Babuulai – was a tasty reward for my teaching” Their career counselor Enkh-Amgalan now says that she is happy to see the

fruits of her advice given to this enthusiastic and committed couple. As she

says

“Chagnaadorj and Bayasgalan are those who receive advice and are keen on implementing, it is always nice to contact them now and then thear how their life and business are improving. As for our center, nearing to its 3rd year anniversary, it is now always full of people who visit us to get advice on how they can make change and improve their lives”.

Chagnaadorj and Bayasgalan at their new

dairy processing unit

NOW this young couple and their four year old son

Ankhbat are happily busy with their already expanded

business. Their 20 milking cows are giving over 50%

more milk as a result of silage and concentrated fod-

der prepared by their well-trained owners. Formerly

small household farmers are now employers of two

farm workers. Their total monthly household income

is now around 2.8million MNT, which is expected to

further increase starting this summer. As they won the

first prize at Bayankhongor Pitch Event for supporting

start-up businesses organized by SDC project, the

grant of 10million MNT allowed them to purchase nec-

essary equipment such as multi-function pot, refrigerator,

and all necessary raw materials for producing their new

product-packaged yogurt.

This Mongolian young family now started planning for

their future with ideas to expand its business that include

but not limited to: producing powder milk, making ice

cream and other new dairy products for local consumption

and eventual entry to Ulaanbaatar city market.

2017.01.20

“BE ALWAYS TRUE TO YOUR IDEAS AND INTERESTS, NEVER GIVE UP, NEVER STOP LEARNING AND ALWAYS

WORK HARD!”IS THEIR CALLING FOR OTHER YOUNG PEOPLE.

This story is only one of many other that can showcase the success and impact of SDC funded Youth Employment Support

Project which aims to contribute to the equitable and sustainable social and economic development of Mongolia.