Organisation des Nations unies pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture

vignette|Le siège de la FAO, Rome. vignette|Le siège de la FAO, Rome. vignette|Lester B. Pearson préside une séance plénière de la conférence de fondation de l'Organisation des Nations unies pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture. octobre 1945. LOrganisation des Nations unies pour l’alimentation et l’agriculture (connue sous les sigles ONUAA ou, plus couramment, FAO, de l'anglais Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) est une organisation spécialisée du système des Nations unies, créée en 1945 à Québec. Son siège est à Rome, au Palazzo FAO, depuis 1951. Depuis le , la FAO compte , soit membres, une Organisation membre (l’Union européenne) et deux membres associés (les Îles Féroé et Tokelau). Son objectif suprême affiché est : « Aider à construire un monde libéré de la faim », sa devise, inscrite sur son logotype, est « Fiat panis », expression latine – sur le modèle de l'expression biblique Fiat lux – signifiant « qu'il y ait du pain ». Pour aider les pays pauvres e

A WebGIS platform for the monitoring of Farm Animal Genetic Resources (GENMON)

Stéphane Joost, Giona Matasci, Ivo Widmer

Background In 2007, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) initiated the Global plan of action for Farm Animal Genetic Resources (FAnGR). The main goal of this plan is to reduce further loss of genetic diversity in farm animals, so as to protect and promote the diversity of farm animal resources. An important step to reach this goal is to monitor and prioritize endangered breeds in the context of conservation programs. Methodology/Web portal implementation The GENMON WebGIS platform is able to monitor FAnGR and to evaluate the degree of endangerment of livestock breeds. The system takes into account pedigree and introgression information, the geographical concentration of animals, the cryo-conservation plan and the sustainability of breeding activities based on socio-economic data as well as present and future land use conditions. A multi-criteria decision tool supports the aggregation of the multi-thematic indices mentioned above using the MACBETH method, which is based on a weighted average using satisfaction thresholds. GENMON is a monitoring tool to reach subjective decisions made by a government agency. It relies on open source software and is available at http://lasigsrv2.epfl.ch/genmon-ch. Results/Significance GENMON allows users to upload pedigree-information (animal ID, parents, birthdate, sex, location and introgression) from a specific livestock breed and to define species and/or region-specific weighting parameters and thresholds. The program then completes a pedigree analysis and derives several indices that are used to calculate an integrated score of conservation prioritization for the breeds under investigation. The score can be visualized on a geographic map and allows a fast, intuitive and regional identification of breeds in danger. Appropriate conservation actions and breeding programs can thus be undertaken in order to promote the recovery of the genetic diversity in livestock breeds in need. The use of the platform is illustrated by means of an example based on three local livestock breeds from different species in Switzerland.

Public Library of Science2017

Virtual land use and agricultural trade: Estimating environmental and socio-economic impacts

Claudia Rebeca Binder Signer

Liberalization has caused an increase in the global trade of goods and services. In particular, the value and physical volume of agricultural goods traded have largely increased. As the environmental and social consequences of trade are complex, they are rarely included in the national and international agricultural policies. One reason is that there is a lack of concepts and methods for assessing the environmental and social impacts of trade policies. In this paper we develop a method for quantifying and assessing the land use hidden in the export and import of agricultural goods for the case of Switzerland. For our analysis we focus on arable crops. The first methodological step of our research illustrates the spatial relationship of Switzerland with countries all over the world through the import and export of land use for arable crops. The second step links this spatial dimension with a qualitative assessment of the environmental and socio-economic impacts of agricultural land use. We applied the method to the case of wheat cultivation within Switzerland and import to Switzerland. The major problem we were confronted with was the availability of data, which had both to be reliable and available for the countries wheat is imported from. The results show that the calculation of land use is credible. In spite of the problems related with data availability, the assessment results for each indicator are in agreement with the current situation in the respective countries. In addition, the aggregation seems to accurately reflect the countries' agricultural polices. The developed method is used to estimate the overall environmental and socio-economic impacts of an increase in wheat imports to Switzerland. We argue that this method could be applied for anticipating potential impacts of trade agreements. Still, further research is required for fine-tuning of the utility functions, including a weighting procedure in the aggregation procedure. For practical applications important aspects like water shortage should enlarge our limited set of indicators. In addition the average impact on a country level was assessed. To refine that, different agricultural systems ranging from intensive to extensive to organic should be considered. Beyond our scope was to analyze impacts due to other life cycle stages than the agricultural production. For informed decision, however, information on the whole life cycle of agricultural products is required.

2006

Virtual land use and agricultural trade: Estimating environmental and socio-economic impacts

Claudia Rebeca Binder Signer

2006

A WebGIS platform for the monitoring of Farm Animal Genetic Resources (GENMON)

Stéphane Joost, Giona Matasci, Ivo Widmer

Public Library of Science2017

Organisation des Nations unies pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture

A WebGIS platform for the monitoring of Farm Animal Genetic Resources (GENMON)

Virtual land use and agricultural trade: Estimating environmental and socio-economic impacts

FAO – World Food Organization

Virtual land use and agricultural trade: Estimating environmental and socio-economic impacts

FAO – World Food Organization

A WebGIS platform for the monitoring of Farm Animal Genetic Resources (GENMON)