Introduction to Beekeeping and Melliferous Plants in Mongolia

General Trends in the Traditional Industry of Mongolia

The major industries of Mongolia include mining, agricultural industry, tourism, textile manufacturing, wholesale and retail manufacturing. Based on the industrial composition of GDP (Table 1), mining and wholesale and retail are the largest industries, accounting for 17 percent of GDP. The portion of the mining industry decreased to 17.0 percent, but the portion of agricultural industry, increased by 13.6 percent because of the continuous governmental support and the climate changes of global warming. Still, more than 21 percent of workers still account for the other services, such as financial & insurance, public administration, electricity, gas, accommodation, food service, human health, arts, and so on.

Table 1.

Industrial Composition of Gross Domestic Product (Unit: M.USD (%))

Manufacturing accounted for more than 9 percent of the total GDP. Mongolia has many difficulties in generating manufacturing industries in terms of grassland ecosystems, water resources, cheap labor, and the infrastructure of energy and transportation. Therefore, it would be desirable to establish proper industrial policies considering the climate and environment of Mongolia rather than nurturing the manufacturing industry by force. The agriculture and real estate industry has recently grown steadily, and the economic growth on the basis of the mining industry have generated a kind of expending effect into the other services.

Agriculture and Livestock farming in Mongolia

Mongolia is one of the few remaining nomadic nations on the earth. Although the portion of the livestock farming in the agriculture industry has declined compared to the past, it still accounts for significant weight in terms of gross domestic product and workers. In particular, it should not be overlooked that the agriculture and livestock industry has been a profound influence on the Mongolian society, especially in regards to cultural and emotional aspects (Badarch et al., 2012).

In the industrial sector, Mongolia has a greater proportion of livestock farming and breeding, especially cattle, horses, sheep, goats, and camels. In addition, there is a growing number of poultry farms raising the pigs and chickens. In particular, the death toll of sheep and goats was so numerous that many nomadic people abandoned their homes and moved to the cities because of the difficulties of living (Otgonjargal et al., 2006).

Most of the agricultural land is pastures land (96.2% in 2015 data), and the arable land is less than 1% of the whole agricultural land (Table 2). Among them, the area of farmland grew significantly larger, and the area of potatoes and vegetables grew. The other lands are used for the special needs of Mongolia as a landlocked country through negotiation for access to the sea, to improve the efficiency of transit transportation through the territories of foreign countries.

Table 2.

Agricultural Areas in Mongoliat (Unit: thous.hectar)

Mongolia imports large amounts of food from China, and if considering a little extended portion of the arable land, it is believed that Mongolia will be self-sufficient in food supplies. This will also bring important import substitution effects in terms of agriculture. Along with increasing arable land, agricultural production is also increasing greatly. Forage crop also was increased more than twice as much as preparations for winter feed of the traditional livestock and for the raising poultry of pigs and chickens.

Apiculture in Mongolia

In the northern part of Mongolia, which is surrounded by Selenga River and its tributary streams, it is a good breeding ground for honey bees because there are the blossom of the mellifereous plants distributed. Traditionally, the apiculture was not developed widely in Mongolia, but in the first time, Mr. Zhamts began beekeeping in the Selenge region by the effect of Russia.

The beekeeping is mainly migratory for the searching of the melliferous plants with the stack of bee hives and all equipments for beekeeping have been supported by Russia. The races of honeybees are Grey Russian, Carpathian, and Caucasian. According to Mongolian Beekeeper Society, approximately 450 beekeepers have 7,700 hives, but 9,900 hives are currently registered in government entries, and more than 200 ton of honey has been produced in 2015.

The hardest part of the Mongolian beekeeping industry is the entrance of the winter seasons in Mongolia, which have to withstand the sever freezing temperatures. It was discovered that the wintering ground tunnels are used for the bee colonies to survive for such a low temperature as minus 40 degrees Celsius and to feed them during the long winter (Fig. 1 and 2).

Fig. 1.

Entrance to the beekeepers’ wintering site of Mongolia, using underground tunnels (about 30 meters deep).

Fig. 2.

The 40 hives arranged in the grasslands of Mongolia and a vent funnels on the ground to avoid severe cold weather.

Maedow and Flora in Mongolia

Mongolia is the ninth largest country and located in Central Asia. Because of the hot, short summer and long, cold winter, and a rare rainfall of 20 to 35 centimeters per year, Mongolia has mostly small shrubs, but which are very diverse and are becoming a valuable food for livestock and wild foraging insects.

The most common flowering plant in Mongolia is plants in genus Caryopteris (층꽃나무속 Lamiales, 꿀풀목: Lamiaceae, 꿀풀과) which has distinctive scent from the leaves, and the color of the flowers is white or blue (Fig. 3A). The famous wild plant in Mongolia is Edelweiss (에델바이스, Leonto-podium alpinum, Asterales, 국화목: Asteraceae, 국화과) which can be 3 to 20 centimeters and its leaves are covered with white fur and shaped like wool and, used for medicinal purposes (Fig. 3B).

Fig. 3.

Flowers in the pasturage of Mongolia.

The third most famous Mongolian plant is plants in geners Gentiana (용담속 Gentianales, 용담목: Gentianaceae, 용담과) which is found in the relatively mild regions of Mongolia with about 400 species, as well as around Asia and around the world, the color of flowers is blue (Fig. 3C).

There is also a plant in a genus Delphinium (제비고깔속 Ranunculales, 미나리아재비목: Ranunculaceae, 미나리아재비과) flower found in the grassland and mountain slopes of Mongolia. In the tip of a long stem (10cm or more), a small purple flower blooms and leaves the pollen, and bumble bees and butterflies in the flower pot help the pollen transfer and fertilization. It has the function of medicinal herbs (Fig. 3D).

Other flowers were found in Mongolia. A plant in genus Rhododendron (진달래속 Ericales, 진달래목; Ericaceae, 진달래과) is composed of large leaves and small flowers, which are commonly used in mountainous regions of the northern hemisphere, and are frequently used for the ornamental purpose, and the horses were reported to have died of eating these poisonous plants. Also, plants in Ancolies (genus Auuilegia, 매발톱꽃속 Ranunculaceae) is a lovely plant found in the grasslands of Mongolia, and its while calyx can be seen in harmony with the purple pink flower. The central pollen is yellow colored.

Mellifereous Plants in Mongolia

In Mongolia, there are about 2,800 kinds of honey-producing plants, the melifereous plants, which exist with a wide range of meadows and a tenacious vitality. In Mongolia, the possibilities of resources for plants with strong vitality are endless.

The figure below shows where Mongolia's honey-producing plants are prevalent. As shown in Table 3, it is understood that Huvsgul (Khövsgöl, 49°38′N 100°10′E), HentI (Khentii, 47°19′N 110°39′E), Hangai (Khangai district of Arkhangai Province, 47°23′N 101°30′E), Mongol Daguur (49°42′0′′N 115°6′0′′E), Hayangar (Khalkhgol distirct of Dornod Province, 47°37′53′′N 118°37′3′′E), Hovd (Khovd, 47°0′N 92°45′E), Mongol Altai (Govi-Altai, 45°30′N 95°30′E) of northeastern Mongolia are equal to the areas of high honey-product of Mongolia farmers (Fig. 5).

Table 3.

The honey-producting Melliferous Plant in Monglia)

Actual visit and investigation to Mongolia bee keepers

The results were carried out by visiting a Mongolian beekeeping farmer with the already-made questionnaire. On June 12, we surveyed one of beekeeping place in Gorkhi-Terelj National Park, about two hours-driven remote place from Ulaanbatar, Mongolia's capital.

When we visited the apiary on June, it had already been a day after the first harvest of honey (Fig. 4 and 5), and the beekeeping is a part-time, not a main business, and run in parallel with the other livestock industries. If the average annual income was between 1 and 2 million tugrug (MNT) from honey sales alone and it values 45,000 to 900,000 Won from Korean currency (Table 4). The diversity of beekeeping productions and the emphasis on the uniqueness and survival ability of honeybees through the sever winter in Mongolia will develop and improve the beekeeping and local industry in the rural area in Mongolia.

Fig. 4.

The Mongolian bee hives are set up towards the prairie and the white movable Mongolian tents (Ger) are seen.

Fig. 5.

The front view of single hive with the unusual views of hive two entrances separating the upper and lower parts.

Table 4.

Survey contents for the bee-keepers in Mongolia

Honey products on Mongolian markets

Mongolia was selling about 12 kinds of products using honey. Honey, pollen, wax, milk oil, and pollination are covered, but the actual field investigations have confirmed that Mongolian beekeepers do not know and do not use any other kinds of honey product besides only honey. The Mongol company, Mon-Api, had about 400 hives, had five beekeepers a year, produced two to five tons of honey, and have the local offices at the Ulaanbtar, Darkhan, and Orkhon. The one of the company’s representative products, Muruudliin Khan, is made by mixing honey and milk and is used for the health and healing of the Mongolians.

As you can see in Table 5, honey from Selenga district in Mongolia is not welcome as a popular honey product because the other products imported from China, Russia, and the United States are more universal in Mongolia. Given the uniqueness of Mongolia's regions and weather, it would be advisable to develop and to produce the sufficient value-added products than honey, and other types of honey (Royal Jerry, Propolis and Venom).

Table 5.

The kinds of honey shown in Mongolian markets