Food and Agriculture Organization FAO

an intergovernmental international organization that deals with problems of food resources and agricultural development in various countries. The FAO was founded in 1945 and is headquartered in Rome. As of 1974, it had 124 members. The USSR does not belong to the FAO.

The FAO’s constitution formulates the organization’s chief objective, which is improvement of the nutrition and living standards of the world’s peoples. A more concrete task is to study the world food situation and production and distribution of the most important food and agricultural goods in the world market. The FAO collects, studies, and distributes information on nutrition, food, and agriculture, including forestry and fishing. It also makes recommendations to member countries concerning agriculture and helps implement these recommendations. In addition, it furnishes technical assistance to needy countries. However, not all of these tasks and functions are performed in their entirety.

The supreme body of the FAO is the conference, which meets every two years. It makes recommendations on the work of the organization’s subdivisions, approves a four-year budget, and elects a council headed by a director-general. Between sessions of the conference, the FAO’s work is directed by the council.

The FAO is financed from its own budget, from funds allocated by the United Nations Development Program, which provides technical assistance to FAO members, and from funds of other international organizations or specialized United Nations institutions in case of joint programs or measures.

The FAO is the principal United Nations center for compiling agriculture statistics. Regular FAO publications include the annual agricultural Production Yearbook (Rome, since 1947), the Trade Yearbook (Rome, 1947), and the Monthly Bulletin of Agricultural Economics and Statistics (Rome, 1952). The organization also publishes many studies and market surveys on various products, as well as catalogs, books, and collections.