IAALD NEWS 
 Central and Eastern Europe
WAICENT - The World Agricultural Information Centre of FAO
A. Mangstl, Director , Library & Documentation Systems Division (GIL-WAICENT), FAO, F. Perez-Trejo, WAICENT Manager (GIL-WAICENT)

  1. Introduction

    This paper describes the World Agricultural Information Centre (WAICENT) of FAO as the strategic programme on the management and dissemination of FAO's information. As such, the WAICENT programme provides the information systems platform for accessing FAO's information resources, and makes the accumulated knowledge of the Organisation on all fields of food security and agricultural development available to everyone. The paper outlines the different information systems that have been developed by the WAICENT Programme, which cover corporate databases in statistics, the Virtual Library Catalogue and the WAICENT Information Finder for managing the ever-growing number of pages and information systems available on the FAO Web site. The paper goes on to present some of the Specialised Information Systems supported by WAICENT, and finally it describes the Internet-based tools for managing FAO's information and knowledge resources in the area of visualisation and mapping.

  2. The Role of Information in Achieving Food Security

    The World Food Summit Plan of Action (FAO, Rome, November 1996) highlights information as one of the priority areas in achieving food security. In direct relation to this undertaking, FAO has established WAICENT as its strategic programme on agricultural information management and dissemination. The WAICENT Web page (http://www.fao.org/waicent/): provides an effective search facility to improve access to the wealth of information available on the FAO Web site.

    The scope of the WAICENT's information programme is very broad, covering information systems such as:

    • FAO statistical database (http://apps.fao.org): containing a complete data set on all relevant agricultural domains from around the world. The database, which can be queried free on the Internet, provides statistics for more than 210 countries and territories and 3,000 items in the areas of Agriculture, Fisheries, Forestry and Nutrition.

    • FAO Events Calendar (http://www.fao.org/events/default.htm) offers an interactive calendar of events, major meetings and conferences. The Conference, Council and Committee meeting announcements also provide links to meeting documents, whenever available.

    • FAO Governing Bodies Web Page (http://www.fao.org/unfao/bodies/): gives a description of the structure of the main governing bodies of FAO and links to any documentation available on the meetings in Arabic, Chinese, English, French and Spanish.

    • FAO Publications Catalogue (http://www.fao.org/CATALOG/GIPHOME.HTM): provides up-to-date information both on new publications and electronic products produced by FAO.

    • FAO Documentation Catalogue (http://faowfsh01.fao.org/library/ils_home1.html): the complete catalogue of FAO documentation, searchable directly on the Internet, with links to full text where available.

      WAICENT also furnishes the information systems platform for FAO's Specialised Information Systems, such as:

      1. Domestic Animal Diversity Information System (DAD-IS): http://www.fao.org/dad-is/index.htm DAD-IS is the key decentralised information tool for the Global Programme for the Management of Farm Animal Genetic Resources (AnGR); it provides extensive searchable databases, tools, guidelines, references and contacts. Its objectives are to involve and assist governments, NGOs, international training and research groups in the world to achieve better management of their animal genetic resources.

      2. Emergency Prevention System for Transboundary Animal and Plant Pests and Diseases (EMPRES): http://www.fao.org/WAICENT/FaoInfo/Agricult/AGA/AGAH/EMPRES/EMPRES.HTM The information system in support of FAO's Emergency Prevention System (EMPRES) for transboundary animal and plant pests and diseases has two components: Livestock Diseases, and Desert Locust Management. The term "transboundary" refers to major epizootic diseases that are of significant importance in economic, trade and/or food security importance; basically, where the control and management of the importation of animals requires inter-country co-operation for the prevention of major emergencies. (a) Livestock Diseases. EMPRES highlights six particularly serious diseases: Rinderpest, Foot and Mouth, Rift Valley fever, Lumpy skin disease, Contagious bovine pleuropneumonia (CBPP), and Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR). Principal obstacles in the fight to eradicate these diseases are lack of adequate diagnostic systems; uncoordinated vaccination policies; and ineffective control measures. One of EMPRES' key tasks is to develop a global early warning system for its six priority diseases. (b) Desert Locust Management. The first priority of EMPRES is to establish a rational management approach to reduce and eventually prevent desert locust emergencies. A truly efficient early warning system is the foremost effective tool to combat plant pests; a viable one will enhance the monitoring and the evaluation of activities, and increase preparedness and rapidity in the deployment of additional control resources during emergencies.

      3. World Information and Early Warning System on Plant Genetic Resources (WIEWS): http://apps2.fao.org/wiews

      4. Global Information and Early Warning System on Food and Agriculture (GIEWS): http://www.fao.org/WAICENT/faoinfo/economic/giews/english/giewse.htm

      The Global Information and Early Warning System on Food and Agriculture (GIEWS) is an information system for compiling and exchanging information that is essential for providing regular bulletins on food crop production and markets at the global level, and situation reports on a regional and country-by-country basis. It answers questions like.... How much food is the world producing? What is happening to food prices? Will there be drought in southern Africa this year? Which countries are the most food-insecure? Where are food interventions most needed? The system monitors food supply and demand all over the world, compiles the information and analyses the estimates it receives on trade and food, develops new approaches to early warning and reacts to man-made or natural disaster by sending food supply and demand evaluation missions to the affected countries.

      The scope of information which has been made more easily accessible by WAICENT covers all aspects of agriculture: nutrition, fisheries, forestry and sustainable development. These topics can be found at the following Internet addresses:

      Other information systems are being developed to meet information needs on key topics relating to food security, such as the Key Indicators and Mapping Systems (KIMS) to be used in the programme on Food Insecurity and Vulnerability Information and Mapping Systems (FIVIMS), the Gender and Food Security Web Site (http://www.fao.org/Gender/), the Agricultural Trade Web site dealing with the impact of the Uruguay Round Trade Agreements on food and agriculture (http://www.fao.org/ur/), and the Information Network on Post-harvest Operations (INPhO) Programme (http://www.fao.org/inpho/).

      The Key Indicator Mapping System (KIMS) is programmed in Java to be used in FIVIMS as a multi-platform knowledge management system for decision-support and food security policy advice.

      The Gender and Food Security Web site displays a single entry point for a wealth of statistics, information and knowledge on the numerous and varied topics covered by FAO's mandate.

      The Agricultural Trade Web site reflects a well structured framework for accessing all the available information, documents and expertise from the Organization, pertinent to the negotiations on the Uruguay Round.

      The INPhO Web site offers information systems support to the network of international and national organizations participating in this important programme worldwide. The information and knowledge systems on the site are also available on CD-ROM, using the same Internet technologies.

  3. FAO's Virtual Library, an Internet-based System for Electronic Publishing

    4. The FAO Virtual Library has two main functions: firstly, it provides FAO staff with electronic access to external information sources and databases; secondly, and most importantly, it facilitates access by external users to FAO's wealth of technical documentation and publications. The Corporate Repository is the central element of the Virtual Library: it is a database that ensures the upkeep of the Organization's institutional memory. The Repository already contains over 1,000 documents with a unique Internet address that can be linked to the Web sites of the different departments. In order to facilitate and accelerate the process, standard procedures and templates have been developed for each type of document and publication produced by the Organization.

    A diagram is provided here of the system for producing, storing, managing and disseminating FAO documents and publications. A specially designed template has been developed for each publication prepared in FAO. Once produced, the document is then converted into SGML (Standard Generalized Mark-up Language) format and indexed for storage in the Document Repository. Different filters are used for viewing on the Web, publication on CD-ROM, and full text searching.

  4. Managing FAO's Information Resources on the Web
    5.

    The FAO Web site has grown spectacularly over the last three years. It now contains over 50,000 pages of technical materials and information systems. This wealth of information receives over 3 million hits per month from users from all around the world. WAICENT has recently implemented a Web information management tool which gives the data owners the possibility to catalogue their pages and publications on the Web. At the same time, the meta-information improves the access to users on the different topics and themes, such as gender and food security, desertification, agricultural trade and development, etc.

    The WAICENT Information Finder is a system offering users an improved thematic access (searching by major topics) to the many pages of the FAO Web site. The Information Finder uses Internet technologies allowing the authors of the Web pages (in the different departments and programmes of FAO), to catalogue their own pages. The catalogued information is stored in a database made available to users via the WAICENT Information Finder Search-Engine.

    The mechanism described involves using an electronic form available on the FAO Intranet that is filled out by the author or "data- owner" of an information system or database. For example, an entry in the system with the title "Desertification" may list Web pages on "Soil and water management", "Erosion control" and "Rangeland Management".

    This system may be thought of like the parts of a book, and the entries for Web pages can be seen as chapters in the book. The information recorded in an entry includes the title of the Web page, a short description of the contents or the database, the intended target audience, the language of the text, the subject category which describes the page, and any AGROVOC descriptors employed (optional). The author or "data-owner" makes each entry by filling in an electronic form on-line, consisting of a combination of fields for collecting descriptive information and drop-down menus for selecting descriptors. Once the entry has undergone the automated approval process, the descriptive information about the newly registered information system is immediately available to users on the WAICENT Information Finder.

  5. Conclusions

    The WAICENT programme on information management and dissemination provides a platform to enable member countries to access agricultural information that is essential for achieving food security and sustainable rural development. The numerous examples presented in this paper show how WAICENT has elaborated a mechanism for improving its efficiency in servicing the information needs of these countries.

    Through the WAICENT information services FAO is able to organize and disseminate its wealth of information resources on agriculture, fisheries and forestry, and to play a key role world-wide in providing vital data for the analysis, review and improvement of agricultural policies on food security. Internet offers a unique and unlimited capacity to disseminate information in a cost-effective manner to millions of users around the world, in Arabic, English, French and Spanish. As part of efforts to expand access to WAICENT, especially in member countries where the Internet is not yet widely available, a portable set of WAICENT CD-ROMs has been developed, which includes, among others, FAOSTAT, AGRIS and CARIS, Gender and Food Security, and Combating Desertification.