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- 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.
- 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:
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. 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.
World Information and Early Warning System on Plant Genetic
Resources (WIEWS): http://apps2.fao.org/wiews
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.
- FAO's Virtual Library, an Internet-based System for Electronic Publishing
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.
- Managing FAO's Information Resources on the Web
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.
- 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.
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