“The training on certified cattle grader/evaluator for 5 types of animals” has successfully been organized during 10-21 of September, 2020 , in Arvaikheer Soum of the Uvurkhangai Aimag by UN-FAO in cooperation with the Ministry of Food, Agriculture, and Light Industry (MoFALI), and conducted by Mongolian University of Life Sciences (MULS). The training is organized as part of the “Piloting Animal Identification and Registration System (AIRS)” project, which is being implemented in 4 soums of Uvurkhangai Aimag, namely Bat-Ulzii, Uyanga, Guchin-Us and Bayangol soums.

The closing ceremony of the training was held on September 21^st in the Citizens' Hall of Uvurkhangai Aimag, and attended by Mr.T.Jambaltseren, State Secretary of the MoFALI, Mr. Vinod Ahuja, Resident Representative of FAO in Mongolia, Mr. O.Batjargal, Deputy Chairman of the Aimag, and Mr. Tsedenbaljir, Director of the Aimag Department of Agriculture (ADA). A total of 37 participants from all 4 soums and officials from ADA were issued certificates as professional graders/classifiers for both large and small livestock.

The main purpose of the training was to train zoo-technicians and AIRS project participants in rural areas as professional grader/evaluator for both small and large livestock, and to implement the ear-tagging and horse chip injection campaign of the AIRS project in 4 soums of Uvurkhangai Aimag.

The piloting AIRS project aims to develop a new livestock identification and registration system in Mongolia, and to pilot and register a total of 190,000 animals in 4 soums of Uvurkhangai aimag, to test and improve the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for livestock identification and registration, and to make recommendations to the MoFALI further replicating the project at nationwide scale. If the project is successful, MoFALI plans to expand the project at national level and register all Mongolian livestock.