A young man in Mongolia left his accounting studies and started a small household farm with six milking cows. [1] Through training supported by a local project, he and his wife learned intensive dairy farming techniques. [2] They expanded their business, now employ workers and earn over double their original income, winning local awards. [3]

1. SUCCESS STORY
THE 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

2. YOUTH
EMPLOYMENT
PROJECT
Ulaanbaatar city, Mongolia
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.