Poverty Alleviation Study Centre (PASC) urban gardening programme, Ulaanbaatar

An urban gardening extension programme run in Ulaanbaatar from 1992 by the Poverty Alleviation Study Centre during Mongolia's economic transition. Working out of the Metropolitan Library, it taught growing and distributed inputs; participating families rose more than twentyfold, from 850 in 1990/91 to 21,000 by 1996.

From 1992 an "Agricultural Consultancy Exhibition" at the Metropolitan Library taught the basics of growing and handed out seeds, tools, fertiliser and teaching materials. Ten teacher-coordinators were placed across the city's zones, each mentoring roughly ten of the poorest households.

A poverty-alleviation programme responding to the hardship and food insecurity of Mongolia's transition from a centrally planned economy: public bodies and NGOs together provided extension advice and free inputs. Keeping traditional livestock had become impractical for many families, which is why growing vegetables was taken up instead.

By using an existing public building — the library — as its shop front and putting a teacher-coordinator in charge of the poorest households in each zone, the programme multiplied participation more than twentyfold in a few years. Whether it still runs could not be confirmed, so the status is recorded as unknown.

Web articles and features that cover this case.

• ArticleCombating Hunger in Mongolia Using Urban Agriculture (City Farmer) ↗cityfarmer.org