Thousands of Mongolian herders face food shortages due to severe winter weather, which has killed 1.7 million head of livestock, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned Tuesday.

A spell of intense cold with temperatures plummeting to minus 50 degrees Celsius recently had caused a shortage of fodder for livestock, the FAO said.

Urgent assistance of some US$6 million was needed to help the herders make it through the winter, the FAO said.

The Mongolian government estimates that if current conditions persist, loss may reach 3 to 4 million head of livestock, on which Mongolian nomads occupying a third of the population depend entirely for their livelihoods.

Two-thirds of Mongolia's 21 provinces are considered seriously affected, with total estimated economic loss of US$62 million so far.

If assistance was not provided soon, increasing poverty would lead to mass migration to the cities later this year, the FAO warned.

(Xinhua News Agency February 3, 2010)