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4. Portals for FAO Information

FAO Home is the starting page for FAO information online. It Includes a free text search of the entire FAO web site for web pages and documents as well as a directory search for important sites and information within FAO, including Publications and Statistics some of which are noted in this guide's Statistics section. From here there is also access to FAO's specialized Countries information.

Another useful access point is the Glossary of FAO Databases and Information Systems which lists and links to over 50 alphabetically-listed entries for the many areas of this Organization's work. They are listed below.

AFRIS - The Animal Feed Resource Information System (AFRIS) provides descriptions and chemical data on plants and other feed materials with 650 references and abstracts.

AGRIBANK-STAT - AgriBank-Stat was developed by the Marketing and Rural Finance Service of FAO as tool to provide key information on financial institutions in developing countries which offer financial services mainly to farmers and farmer households.

AGRIPPA - A database of agricultural documents produced by independent authors drawn from the agricultural and development world, and made available free of charge, in electronic format. Authors are invited to submit work such as reviews, scientific articles, poster papers and extension materials covering all areas within FAO’s mandate. AGRIPPA provides editors and reviewers to manage and edit submitted texts. Editors draw on the network of peer reviewers to assess the quality and accuracy of work in the same way as a conventional journal.

AGRIS - The International Information System for the Agricultural Sciences and Technology (AGRIS) identifies world literature dealing with all aspects of agriculture. Operational since 1975, AGRIS has accumulated a database of more than 2.7 million references.

AQUASTAT - AQUASTAT is FAO's global information system of water and agriculture developed by the Land and Water Development Division of FAO. AQUASTAT provides users with comprehensive information on the state of agricultural water management across the world, with emphasis on developing countries and countries in transition.

ASFA - Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Abstracts (ASFA) is an abstraction and indexing service covering literature related to global aquatic sciences. The ASFA database contains bibliographic references, including abstracts, literature on the science, technology, and management of marine, brackish water, and freshwater environments, including their socio-economic and legal aspects.

CARIS - The Current Agricultural Research Information System (CARIS) identifies projects dealing with all aspects of agriculture which are being carried out in - or on behalf of - developing countries.

CLIMWAT - CLIMWAT is a climatic database to be used in combination with the computer program CROPWAT. It calculates crop water requirements, irrigation supply and irrigation scheduling for various crops for a range of climatological stations worldwide.

CODEX ALIMENTARIUS - The Codex Alimentarius, or the food code, was established by the United Nations and the World Health Organization in partnership with national governments to formulate and harmonize food standards and ensure their global implementation. The Codex Alimentarius database contains an up-to-date archive of meetings as well as all information and publications related to the development of the code.

CONVERSION FACTORS - Factors for the Conversion of Fish and Fish Product Landed Weights to Live Weight Equivalents is a database containing the factors used by national fishery statistical offices to convert landed fish weights into live weight equivalents for a wide variety of fish products prepared on board fishing vessels.

COUNTRY PASTURE PROFILES - Basic information about the pasture and forage resources of countries. Each profile provides a broad overview of relevant general, topographical, climatic and agroecological information with focus on livestock production systems and the pasture /forage resource and information concerning key institutions and personnel and their current research interests and selected references. Each profile has a custodian responsible for updating.

CROPWAT - CROPWAT is a practical tool to help agro-meteorologists, agronomists and irrigation engineers to carry out standard calculations for evapotranspiration and crop water use studies, and more specifically the design and management of irrigation schemes. It allows the development of recommendations for improved irrigation practices, the planning of irrigation schedules under varying water supply conditions, and the assessment of production under rainfed conditions or deficit irrigation.

ECOCROP 1 - ECOCROP 1 is a database designed as a tool to identify plant species particular to specific environments and uses. The information in Ecocrop 1 identifies approximately 1,710 plant species whose most important climate and soil requirements match the information on soil and climate entered by the user.

ECOCROP 2 - ECOCROP 2 is designed as a library of studies on crop responses in relation to environmental and management factors. The program is created to provide information for crop modelling and to be used as a tool for scientists to organise and retrieve their own specific information on plant species.

EMPRES - The goal of the Emergency Prevention System for Transboundary Animal and Plant Pests and Diseases (EMPRES) is to promote the effective containment and control of the most epidemic livestock diseases through epidemiological surveillance, contingency planning, early warning systems and global coordination.

FAO COUNTRY PROFILES AND MAPPING INFORMATION SYSTEM
The FAO Country Profiles and Mapping Information System is a pioneering information retrieval tool which groups the organization's vast archive of information on its global activities in agriculture and development in a single area and catalogues it exclusively by country. The system offers decision-makers around the world a fast and reliable way to access country-specific information without the need to search individual databases and systems.

FAOLEX - Created by the FAO LEGAL OFFICE, FAOLEX stores full-text copies of international treaties, laws and regulations related to food, agriculture and renewable natural resources.

FAOSTAT - The FAO Statistical Database is an on-line multilingual database currently containing over 1 million time-series records from over 210 countries and territories covering statistics on agriculture, nutrition, fisheries, forestry, food Aid, land use and population. N.B. see also Harvard's subscription to FAOSTAT via e-Resources

FAOTERM - The FAO Terminological (FAOTERM) database is a dictionary covering FAO's specialized subjects - agriculture, biology, forestry, fisheries, economics, statistics, nutrition – in a multilingual format.

FiSAT - FiSAT was developed mainly for fish stock analysis, but also enables related analyses of size, catch, selection and other data typically collected for tropical fish stock assessment.

FISHERS - Global number of fishers contains the number of people engaged in fishing according to the working time devoted to the occupation, as national annual averages, from 1961 onwards. The database also includes statistics from 1990 onwards of employment in aquaculture and separate inland and marine fisheries on a gender disaggregated basis.

FISHLEX - A database of coastal state requirements for foreign fishing, consisting of a series of tables summarizing the provisions of national legislation and of bilateral and multilateral agreements governing foreign fishing in waters under national jurisdiction.

FISHSTAT Plus - The system provides users with access to a variety of downloadable fishery statistics databases more detailed than those provided by FAOSTAT. Contains data on quantities and values of aquaculture production, capture production, trade and production of fishery products, as well as Eastern Central Atlantic and Mediterranean and Black Sea capture production.

FISHERY FLEET - Global Fishing Fleet database contains statistics on fishery fleets (fishing and support vessels) for decked and undecked craft. Numbers of undecked vessels are provided by country and vessel type for powered and unpowered boats. For decked vessels, numbers and aggregate GRT values are available by country and vessel type for classes of GRT, length and horsepower. The statistics, which cover the years 1970, 1975 and 1980 onwards, contain estimates of missing data so that estimates of continental and world totals are available.

FIVIMS - The Food Insecurity and Vulnerability Information and Mapping Systems (FIVIMS) project contains a network of systems that assemble, analyse and disseminate information on the problem of food insecurity and vulnerability. FIVIMS aims to raise awareness of food security issues, improve the quality of food-security related data and analysis, facilitate the integration of complementary information, and promote better understanding of users' needs as well as improve the use and sharing of information.

FORIS - Database containing information on the distribution of world forests in English, French, Arabic and Spanish and links to other relevant information for sustainable forest management.

GIEWS - The Global Information and Early Warning System on Food and Agriculture. (GIEWS) provides regular bulletins on food outlook, food crops and shortages, food supply situation and crop prospects, weather and alerts on a regional or country-by-country basis.

GLOBEFISH - GLOBEFISH is the unit in the FAO Fisheries Department responsible for information on international fish trade. GLOBEFISH is an integral part of the FISH INFOnetwork and performs a co-ordinating role in the Network activities.

GRASSLAND INDEX/GBASE - A searchable grassland index of nearly 500 grassland and pasture species, with picture gallery.

GTOS - The Global Terrestrial Observing System (GTOS) provides access to the data necessary to manage the change in the capacity of terrestrial ecosystems to support sustainable development. It also houses an international directory of sites and networks that carry out long-term terrestrial monitoring and research activities.

INPhO - The Information Network of Post-Harvest Operations (INPhO) aims to prevent the loss of millions of tonnes of cereals, roots, tubers, fruits and vegetables in developing countries caused by inadequate handling and storage, pest damage, and transport and marketing problems. The database provides one-click access to five databases on post-harvest experts, post-harvest images, storage systems, traditional recipes and other Internet links.

INTDR
The Agricultural Engineering Institutions (INTDR) database promotes information exchange among agricultural engineering institutions around the world. It includes more than 640 institutions from almost 100 countries and presents names and addresses of the institutions plus a description of their activities.

IES - Irrigation Equipment Supply database houses a list of irrigation equipment services worldwide.

LEAD - The Livestock, Environment and Development Initiative (LEAD) works for the protection and enhancement of natural resources that are affected by livestock production. It highlights the close and complex interaction between government policies and the environmental impact of livestock production, and identifies the large number of technologies available to mitigate the negative effects of some production systems.

TAD-info - The Transboundary Animal Disease Information System (TAD-info) is a database management system for the storage and analysis of information on livestock diseases. It also aims to improve disease management systems.

TERRASTAT - TERRASTAT houses databases containing information on major soil constraints, soil in deserts and dryland areas, population distribution, steeplands analysis, land degradation severity and human-induced land degradation due to agricultural activities.

WIEWS - The World Information and Early Warning System on Plant Genetic Resources (WIEWS) provides information on national programmes focusing on the conservation and utilization of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture.

World List of Seed Sources - This database houses the details of approximately 8,000 public and private institutions dealing with seed production and processing in over 150 countries.

Next: 5. Statistics