Importance of Agricultural Information in the Global Context

Abstract

Contributing institution: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United NationsDr. Mangstl is a specialist in Information and Knowledge Management as well as Agronomy. Prior to joining FAO in 1996, he was Director of the Centre for Agricultural Documentation and Information (ZADI) Bonn, Germany. Earlier, he was Deputy to the Head of the Working Group on Crop Production and Informatics, Center for Life and Food Sciences in Agriculture, Freising-Weihenstephan (Germany). Dr. Mangstl serves as Director, Library and Documentation Systems Division, General Affairs and Information Department, for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). He is the FAO Focal Point for participation in the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) and related follow-up (C.7 ICT Applications, E-Agriculture). Dr. Mangstl is in charge of the World Agricultural Information Centre (WAICENT), established by FAO in recognition of the intrinsic value of information in fighting global hunger and achieving food security. Through the WAICENT framework, FAO is able to effectively disseminate the Organization's vast wealth of information on food and agriculture. The work of Dr. Mangstl's Division on WAICENT includes capacity building and partnership initiatives which promote best practices in information management, sharing information management systems and tools, e-learning modules for capacity building through the Information Management Resource Kit (IMARK) initiative and proactively participating in FAO's interdepartmental WAICENT Committee. Dr. Mangstl has been involved in the Organization's latest endeavour to effectively transform FAO into a Knowledge Organization. This transformation allows the Organization to learn from and give a voice to the agricultural community regarding a wide range of issues affecting Food Security and Agricultural Production today. In 2001, Dr. Mangstl was awarded Honorary Professor by the National Agriculture University of Ukraine, Prof. h.c. (UA). Further information: http://www.fao.org/gi/gil/about_en.asp - GIL Divisional Website, http://www.fao.org/rdd/ - Bridging the Rural Digital Divide, http://www.imarkgroup.org/ - IMARK, http://www.fao.org/KnowledgeForum/index_en.htm - Knowledge Foru