A new directory that provides information on electronic databases worldwide in the field of agriculture taken broadly to include fisheries and forestry, food science, veterinary medicine, and self-sufficiency covering online, CD-ROM, magnetic tape, and diskette formats. The records provide informati

Een overzicht van 428 internationale databases en databasesystemen met specifieke gegevens

In this paper we present the new FAO analytical database on aggregate physical investmentflows and capital stock in agriculture, forestry and fishing for 206 countries and territories from 1990 to 2015. the methodology used to deal with missing data, and the measurement issues underlying its development. Building on previous research programmes held at the World Bank and at the FAO, we compile long time series of the agricultural investment-to-value added ratio, which we employ to compute agricultural investment flows.

Fully-sourced country-specific files on the basic resources committed to national agricultural research systems for 154 developing and developed countries.

The Global Agro-Ecological Zoning version 4 (GAEZ v4), launched on June 17th 2021, uses well-established land evaluation principles to assess natural resources for finding suitable agricultural land utilization options. It is based on agro-climatic assessments, models, natural and human resources, crop statistics and water use at global scale. With the increasing complexity and intensity of environmental and social challenges an improved understanding of the physical drivers of climate change is necessary. Consequently, a systematic and harmonized update of the global datasets is intended for the further development of GAEZ. The main strategic goal of new version of GAEZ (version 5) is to make the outputs of the system available to national entities to support wise land use decision-making. To this end, supported by the GAEZ Partnership, GAEZ v5 will provide dynamically updated AEZ information, to meet local to global level AEZ users’ need. To refine the overall GAEZ assessment, additional layers will be included in the land resources and climate database. Appendix 1 “Recommendations for further GAEZ development”) of the GAEZ v4 Model Documentation1 provides a list of potential database updates and improvements including for climate (both base-line and climate projections), land cover/land use, soil (with improved detail of processes such as land degradation) and ancillary datasets used for reporting and planning (e.g. areas reserved for environmental protection and maintenance of biodiversity, population density, livestock, administrative boundaries) GAEZ makes use of best available global spatial databases to estimate the biophysical crop production potential for over 100 crops and crop sub-types. The estimation procedures consecutively consider factors relevant for crop production over time and for different management conditions. An overview of the overall GAEZ v4 model structure and data integration is shown in Figure 1 and detailed information about the process and methodology are provided in the Model Documentation.

The availability of comprehensive and reliable information is crucial for developing evidence-based policies and strategies for the conservation and use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture. Information on food and agricultural crops, on their use, interdependence, demand, supply, and security is increasingly available but scattered through a number of information systems, databases and scientific literature. This study was undertaken by a team of international experts to pool together information from a wide range of sources in a user-friendly manner and to develop a reproducible set of metrics and indicators, complementing existing indicators. The main global database sources consulted include FAOSTAT, the Data Store of the International Treaty, FAO WIEWS, Genesys PGR, GBIF, PlantSearch, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault’s SeedPortal, UPOV’s PLUTO database, and NCBI’s Entrez database. The resulting metrics were organized into five domains – crop use, interdependence, demand, supply, and security.The study includes findings about the importance of the Multilateral System of Access and Benefit-sharing of the International Treaty, the primary global operational mechanism to exchange plant germplasm needed for research and breeding around the world, while pointing at gaps and possibilities to enable its growth.A number of vignettes complete the study with information on contemporary issues on crop conservation and use, to further showcase how the management of plant genetic diversity is evolving at present.It is hoped that this publication will support countries, researchers, breeders and other stakeholders in prioritizing activities, implementing multilateral frameworks and leading policy discussions related to plant genetic resources for food and agriculture.

Each round of agricultural censuses covers a ten-year period. The present round (WCA 2020) covers agricultural censuses to be undertaken between 2016 and 2025. The census of agriculture continues to play a key role in the collection of structural data on the agriculture sector. The WCA 2020 will ensure that data collected are comparable at the international level while also addressing emerging information needs of the 21st century. Four modalities for conducting a census of agriculture are envisaged: the classical (one-off) approach, which is still widely used; the modular approach, which was introduced in the WCA 2010; the integrated census/survey modality, involving rotating survey modules over the years between two censuses; and the combined census modality, which uses administrative data. The concept of ‘essential’ items is re-introduced and ‘frame’ items are now separately identified for those countries wishing to adopt the modular approach or follow-up surveys. The programme emphasizes the benefits of the developments in information technology for census data collection, processing and dissemination. This publication provides guidance on agricultural censuses carried out by countries in the period between 2016 and 2025. The WCA 2020 will ensure that data collected are comparable at the international level while also addressing emerging information needs of the 21st century.

The report assesses the World Bank Group?s support for growth and productivity in the agriculture sector. Enhancing agricultural growth and productivity is essential to meeting the worldwide demand for food and to reducing poverty, particularly in the poorest developing countries. Between 1998 and 2008, the period covered by this evaluation, the World Bank Group (WBG) provided $23.7 billion in financing for agriculture and agribusiness in 108 countries (roughly 8 percent of total WBG financing), spanning areas from irrigation and marketing to research and extension. However, this was a time of declining focus on agricultural growth and productivity by both countries and donors. The cost of inadequate attention to agriculture, especially in agriculture-based economies, came into focus with the food crisis of 2007-08. The crisis added momentum to an emerging renewal of attention and stepped-up financing to agriculture and agribusiness at the World Bank and International Finance Corporation (IFC), as well as at several multilateral and bilateral agencies. World Bank financing rose two and a half times from 2008 to 2009, though that increase in lending seems to have been accompanied by a decline in analytical work, which this review finds valuable for results. This evaluation seeks to provide lessons from successes and failures to help improve the development impact of the renewed attention to the sector. Ratings against the World Bank?s stated objectives and IFC?s market-based benchmarks for agriculture and agribusiness projects have been equal to or above portfolio averages in East Asia, Latin America, and the transition economies in Europe, with notable successes over a long period in China and India. But performance of WBG interventions has been well below average in Sub-Saharan Africa, where IFC has had little engagement in agribusiness. Inconsistent client commitment and weak capacity have limited the effectiveness of WBG support in agriculture-based economies, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, and constraints on staffing and internal coordination within the WBG have also hurt outcomes. Financial sustainability has been constrained by insufficient government funding and the difficulty of maintaining agricultural services and infrastructure. The WBG has a unique opportunity to match the increases in the financing for agriculture with sharper focus on improving agricultural growth and productivity in agriculture-based economies, notably in Sub-Saharan Africa. Greater effort will be needed to connect sectoral interventions and achieve synergies from public and private sector interventions; to build capacity and knowledge exchange; to take stock of experience in rain-fed agriculture; to ensure attention to financial sustainability and to cross-cutting issues of gender, environmental and social impacts, and climate; and to better integrate WBG support at the global and regional levels with that at the country level.