FAO

1
CENTER OF INFORMATION AND KNOWLEDGE

• FAO
• FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED
  NATIONS

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FAOs Mandate (founded in 1945--Quebec City)

• Raise levels of nutrition and standards of living
• Improve agricultural productivity
• Better the conditions
• of rural populations
• Contribute to the
• expansion of the
• worlds economy

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FAO What it is, What it does

• Information
• Advice
• Neutral forum
• Development Assistance

• FAO collects, analyses, interprets and
  disseminates information
• FAO provides independent advice on agricultural
  policy and planning
• FAO offers a neutral forum for discussion and
  formulation of policy, negotiation of agreements
  and establishment of standards
• FAO provides practical help to developing
  countries through technical assistance

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FAOs role
One of the FAOs major roles is Putting
information in reach FAO highlights information
as one of the priority areas in achieving
agricultural development and food security
How to reach information?
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Diffusion of Information
http//www.fao.org/
The FAO web site contains approximately 50,000
web pages, over 100 databases, and thousands of
documents
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Platform
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W A I C E N T
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WAICENT (World Agricultural Information Center)
Consolidating more than 40 separate databases
under the umbrella of WAICENT
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Statistical databases
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FAOSTAT (FAO Statistical Databases)
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FAOSTAT (FAO Statistical Databases)
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Information Access Tools
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David Lubin Memorial Library
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David Lubin Memorial Library
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Specialized Information System
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GIEWS
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GIEWS (Global Information and Early Warning
System)
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EMPRES
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EMPRES (Emergency Prevention System )
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FIVIMS
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FIVIMS (Food Insecurity and Vulnerability
Information and Mapping Systems )
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FAO Country Profiles and Mapping Information
System
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FAO Country Profiles and Mapping
Information System
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Publication, News, Photos, Graphics
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FAO Corporate Document Repository

• An electronic library that holds FAOs huge
  collection of publications and meeting documents
  in full-text, electronic format.
• Since the initiative started in 1998, over 6 000
  documents have been converted into HTML allowing
  users to download valuable agricultural formation
  from anywhere in the world, free of charge.
• Several types of search facilities allow users to
  look for documents using a combination of search
  fields such as title, language, publication year
  and keywords.

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FAO Catalogue Online

• The FAO on-line catalogue (FAOBIB) is a
  multilingual, on-line catalogue of documents and
  publications produced by FAO since 1945, books
  added to the library collections since 1976, and
  serials held in the FAO library.
• Full text links are provided for all documents
  that are available in the Corporate Document
  Repository. Requests for copies of FAO documents
  in print or microfiche (pre-1998) may be
  addressed to the library

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FAO Publications Catalogue Online

• The FAO Sales Catalogue lists a wide selection of
  FAO publications and CD-ROMs in English, French
  and Spanish that are available to buy over the
  Internet, by mail, by fax or through official
  distributors.
• The interactive catalogue covers a wide spectrum
  of FAO subjects including agriculture, genetics,
  plant production and protection, animal
  production and health, forestry, fisheries, land
  and water development, statistics, trade,
  biotechnology and food and nutrition.

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FAO News Room

• Providing Information related to media by text,
  audio, video, etc
• Online photo (access to photos related to FAO
  projects.)
• Access to Fact sheets in key subjects

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Agriculture Extension FAOs view

• Nonformal rural education transferring
  practical information innovation and opening
  opportunities.
• Multidisciplinary - combining educational
  methodologies, communication, and group
  techniques

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Special Programme for Food Security (SPFS)
What is SPFS? the SPFS is a core agriculture
extension work implemented by FAO which is a
multidisciplinary participatory programme with a
strong emphasis on meeting peoples needs
directly by raising farmers net income,
generating rural employment, increasing social
equity and promoting gender sensitivity
In 2004, the SPFS has been implemented in 100
countries, Including 42 African countries
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Special Programme for Food Security (SPFS)

• Control water through small-scale projects to
  protect against vagaries of weather
• Boost small farmers crop, livestock and
  aquaculture productivity through intensification
  and diversification
• Identify and find measures to respond to
  socio-economic constraints on production,
  marketing and processing of agricultural products

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Farmer Field Schools (FFS)

• Participatory farmer training through
  experiential learning
• Focused initially on integrated pest management
  (IPM)
• Season-long series of weekly meetings where
  farmers identify problems and then design, carry
  out and interpret field experiments.
• Learning combines local knowledge with scientific
  ecological approaches.

After field practicals, Farmers are discussing
new cultural practices demonstrated on the IPM
field in the Farmer Field School in Sudan.
Farmers of the IPM Farmer Field School, Sudan,
are establishing tomato nurseries to grow healthy
seedlings.
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South-South Cooperation

• Advanced developing countries send field
  technicians and experts to specific recipient
  countries for up to two or three years, where
  they work directly with rural communities and
  farmers.
• The number of experts required at any one time is
  determined on a case-by-case basis, assuring
  critical mass and site coverage in all regions
  of the country.

Vietnamese technicians in the fieldswith
Senegalese farmers
Worldwide 28 countries are receiving help with
over 1000 experts and technicians in the field.
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Rural Radio/Rural Communication

• FAO has long supported rural radio initiatives
• Direct support for setting up/improving stations
• Training rural radio workers
• Supporting networking initiatives
• Research evaluation of content and impact
• Advent of low-cost FM transmitters has made rural
  radio more participatory.

A retransmission at Radio St. Louis of broadcasts
on environmental problems realized in
collaboration with the regional forestry service
and an FAO project
A meeting between villagers and the team from the
Communications and Information Unit of the State
Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development
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Garden-Based Learning Programs (GBL)

• GBL provide pupils with environmental education,
  ecological literacy, agricultural literacy and
  agricultural education.

Main Objectives

1. Giving knowledge and skills for better
   agricultural productivity
2. Making Science teaching more relevant and more
   effective
3. Giving environmental education a sustainable
   practical dimension
4. Influencing pupils attitudes, giving positive
   motivation towards agriculture and rural life
5. Spreading agricultural development at village
   level
6. Giving girls access to basic agricultural
   education as the future food producers
7. Improving pupils nutritional status by providing
   school meals
8. Attracting pupils to school with greater local
   relevance of subject matter and better teaching
   methods

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The Growing Connection Hands-on Extension

• Combines water-efficient vegetable production
  with modern communications
• At schools gardens in Ghana, Mexico and USA
• Common growing and IT practices
• Rural communities gain access to local, natl
  intl sources of information advice on food
  production
• Enhances household level food security and
  income-generation

Website http//www.thegrowingconnection.org
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Conclusion

• FAO provides information technology tools to
  internationalize the work of extension agents
  everywhere
• Visit http//www.fao.org or contact
• FAO Liaison Office for North America
• 2175 K Street NW
• Washington, DC 20437
• Phone [phone]