MCA survey to increase farmers’ wealth

Agra as mandated by the Millennium Challenge Account will conduct an assessment survey on the rangeland conditions in the northern part of the country.
Senior manager: public outreach at the Millennium Challenge Account, Ralph Höfelein in a recent media statement called on farmers to assist with the survey by allowing Agra staff to access communal grazing areas.
The survey that has already started in the Kunene region (Ohaingepuire and Outokotorua) during the month,  aims to reach out to farmers in the Kunene, Omusati and Kavango regions.
Indongo Indongo, manager for monitoring and evaluation at the Millennium Challenge Account said that the main goal of the survey is to increase wealth amongst farmers as the Community Based Rangeland Management project aims to enhance the productivity of the livestock sector in the North through improved rangeland resources, livestock management, marketing and community development.
In a recent interview, Indongo told the Economist “The primary objective of the Community Based Rangeland Management and Rangeland Monitoring survey is to collect biomass data that will be used to monitor changes in average status, and secondly, changes in the status of areas with high degradation risk. The survey will also indicate the status of areas that have a high recovery potential.”
He said that the evaluation is important for rangeland recovery and that the assessment is required to determine whether the Community Based Rangeland Management intervention is having an effect on the ecosystems of the Northern parts of the country or not.
Indongo said that the monitoring methods that are applied are based on standard methods developed by the USDA  Agricultural Research Service’s Jornada Experimental Range and that the methods are also being applied nationally by the Mongolian government. Indongo said these same strategies are followed in specific projects in many other countries in the world, including China, Mexico and Argentina.