Information is essential if we are going to make the world a hunger-free zone.

Before we can start, we need to know how many people are chronically hungry and where they live. But how do we get that information? It’s not as if we can ask everyone on the planet whether they’re hungry.

The best we can do is to provide an estimate of the number of people living with chronic hunger. FAO’s estimates are based on a complex set of calculations and require an immense amount of data. FAO collects data about how much food countries produce, how much money they earn from their production and how much they have to spend to produce it. It collects data about population and where people are living, how they’re using the land and water and much more.

Of course FAO doesn’t keep all these data to itself. It shares with the world. FAOSTAT, FAO’s online statistical databases, currently contains over 3 million records in five languages: Arabic, Chinese, French, English and Spanish.

Turning data into knowledge

But gathering and sharing raw data is only one part of FAO’s work. FAO’s staff of agronomists, foresters, fisheries and livestock specialists, nutritionists, social scientists, economists, statisticians and other professionals do something very special with data: they transform it into knowledge.

FAO provides the world with a clear, complete picture of the state of the world’s forests, fisheries, agriculture and hunger. And it makes this information available in its five “flagship” publications:

• The State of Food and Agriculture
• The State of the World’s Fisheries and Aquaculture
• The State of the World’s Forests
• The State of Agricultural Commodity Markets
• The State of Food Insecurity in the World

Although these are FAO’s most important publications, the Organization issues hundreds of other publications and reports every year.

All these documents, including the reports prepared for FAO’s Governing Bodies, help give member countries the knowledge they need to understand the causes and dynamics of hunger and to set policies that will bring hunger to an end.

Bringing knowledge to (and from) the field

It’s not just people designing policy who need information. Policies can only succeed if people on the ground have the right technical information to do the job.

FAO is a centre for technical expertise in all aspects of agriculture, forestry and fisheries. It publishes training and technical manuals that provide the practical information countries need to make their hunger-reduction policies successful.

But knowledge doesn't flow only from the top downward; it’s a two-way flow. The projects that succeed in reducing hunger tend to be the ones that are designed and implemented with the active participation of the poor and hungry. Poor farmers and fisherfolk have a wealth of knowledge about local resources. Projects that tap into this knowledge are more likely to bring long-lasting results.

Through its extensive field programme, FAO has acquired a wealth of experience about how to harness local knowledge and skills. It is constantly compiling lists of practices that have proven effective in the field, so that its members can build on those successes.

Making information available

FAO’s job is to make sure its members have easy access to the information they need.

You’re getting this information thanks to the Internet. And in fact, the Internet has become FAO’s main tool for gathering and sharing information with its members and with the world. For a knowledge network like FAO, with offices all around the world, the Internet has become indispensable.

Many of FAO’s documents are available in electronic format from its online Virtual Library. In the Virtual Library, you’ll find FAO publications and meeting documents in full-text, electronic format, a wealth of information from FAO’s specialized libraries, and information about priced publications and how to order.

The problem is that in many parts of the developing world access to the Internet is very limited. People in these countries are on the other side of what has been called the “digital divide”. Find out what FAO is doing to bridge the rural digital divide.

Playing with numbers

Want to know how many camels there are in Mongolia?
How many tonnes of artichokes were produced in Asia?
How many beehives in Bolivia?
How many chickens in Chad?
How many eggs in Egypt?

Just look it up in FAOSTAT, FAO’s online statistical database.

Here’s an idea! Why not play the FAOSTAT guessing game? Get a few of your friends together. Each one takes a turn making up a question using the FAOSTAT database. For example, “How many tonnes of a local fruit were produced in your country last year?” The others try to guess the answer. The person who comes closest without going over wins the round. First one to win ten rounds is the FAOSTAT champion. Give it a try.