11. the departments, divisions and other major units

In the two previous chapters, general accounts were given of the evolution of the Headquarters as a whole, both in regard to its organizational structure and to its programme of work. Some similar information is given in the present chapter, but here the focus is upon each of the respective units rather than upon the Organization as a whole.

Office of the Director-General

In addition to the Director-General and the Deputy Director-General, the Office of the Director-General encompasses his Cabinet, the Office of Programme, Budget and Evaluation, the Office of Inter-Agency Affairs (which includes the Office for Special Relief Operations), the Legal Office, and the Office of Internal Audit and Inspection.

The Director-General has full power and authority, under the Constitution, General Rules of the Organization and the Financial Regulations, and subject to the general supervision of the Conference and Council, to direct the work of the Organization (Article VII and Rule XXXVII). He appoints the Deputy Director-General (subject to confirmation by the Council, Rule XXXIX. 1), who assists him as required, and acts as Director-General when the latter is unable to act or when a vacancy in that office occurs (Rule XXXVI.2).

In view of the breadth of the Director-General's overall responsibilities for the work of the Organization no attempt is made here to discuss the activities of his immediate Office, beyond the general indications given above. Brief descriptions of the various sectors encompassed within his Office will however be given.

The Cabinet

The Cabinet consists of a Director and a small staff. It contributes actively to the handling of the day-to-day work of the immediate Office of the Director-General, and undertakes a wide variety of special assignments, as required.

During the terms of office of the earlier Directors-General, officers were, of course, assigned to assist them as special assistants, personal assistants, etc., but the formal arrangement of a Cabinet was not instituted until the fifth Director-General, A. H. Boerma, took office in January 1968. Among those who served the earlier Directors-General as Special Assistants were Frank L. McDougall (Australia), from October 1945 to February 1958, David M. Lubbock (United Kingdom), from October 1945 to April 1948, and Joseph L. Orr (United States), from April 1951 to December 1955.

The title of Chef de Cabinet was used by the head of this office from 1968 through June 1976, after which it was changed to Directeur de Cabinet. Those who have held the post are the following:

Office of Programme, Budget and Evaluation

This Office, consisting of a Programme and Budget Service and an Evaluation Service, was established in its present form as of 1 January 1978. Its three functional elements have had a quite chequered history in FAO.

From 1946 to early 1951, budgetary matters were the responsibility of a Budget and Finance Branch. Following the transfer to Rome, a Budget and Administrative Planning Branch dealt with budgetary matters until the end of 1956, when the budgeting function was removed from it.

During 1957 and 1958, programming and budgetary activities were coordinated by a Central Programme and Liaison Service in the Office of the Director-General, which included a Programme and Budgetary Service, a Field Liaison Service, and an International Agency Liaison Service. Following a Council decision in the autumn of 1958, it was continued in the Office of the Director-General and consisted of a small programming unit and a budget office. By the 1960–61 biennium these had evolved into a Programme Research and Evaluation Branch and a Budget Branch. Then, in 1962, a Programme Formulation and Budget Division, consisting of a Programme Formulation Branch and a Budget Branch, was organized within the Programme and Budgetary Service. This Service was maintained until 1968, and the programme formulation and budget aspects, together with other activities it undertook, were carried out under the general direction of the officers listed below:

As a result of the major reorganization planned in 1968 and 1969, and fully implemented in January 1970, the Programme and Budgetary Service was transformed into a Development Department as of 8 July 1968. In January 1970, the Budget Branch was transferred to a new Office of Controller, in the Administration and Finance Department, where it remained until the end of 1973. A Programme Formulation Unit which had remained in the Development Department was transferred back to the Office of the Director-General at the beginning of 1972.

In 1974, an Office of Programme and Budget was set up in the Office of the Director-General, incorporating the Programme Formulation Unit and the Budget Branch, which was transferred from the Administration and Finance Department.

An Evaluation Branch, established on 1 June 1968 in the former Economic Analysis Division, was transferred to the Development Department on 1 January 1973 and redesignated Evaluation Service. On 1 January 1978 the Service was transferred to the Office of Programme and Budget, which was renamed Office of Programme, Budget and Evaluation.

The functions of the Office of Programme, Budget and Evaluation are, for the most part, evident from its name. However, a few general points should be made regarding its development.

The volume and complexity of the programme and budget functions of the Office and its many precursors increased rapidly over the years as the Regular Programme increased in size and scope, as the Field Programme, financed from extra-budgetary sources, emerged and grew, and with the establishment and development of WFP, certain aspects of which require the Office's attention. The formal evaluation activity did not emerge until January 1967, and for the next ten years the Evaluation Service and its predecessors devoted their entire attention to the Field Programme. Its terms of reference were broadened in 1978 to include evaluation of Regular Programme activities, and two of its major outputs are the Review of Field Programmes and Review of the Regular Programme which provide the basis for Conference consideration of FAO's activities during the two previous years.

Many officers have provided leadership in the work covered by the three major sectors of this Office. Those in the programme sector have included —

On the budget side, the key officers who provided leadership at various stages have included —

The leadership in the evaluation sector, which was initiated considerably later than the other two sectors, has included —

The overall leadership of this Office, and of its predecessors, has included the following officers:

Office for Inter-Agency Affairs

This section deals with both the Office for Inter-Agency Affairs and the Office for Special Relief Operations, which carries out its functions under the general supervision of the former.

The history of the Office for Inter-Agency Affairs begins in August 1953, when an Executive Officer for Inter-Agency Liaison was appointed in the Office of Special Assistants, Office of the Director-General.

In January 1956, an International Agency Liaison Service was established in the Office of the Director-General, and continued until December 1958. In January 1959, when a Programme and Budgetary Service was set up in the Office of the Director-General with broader terms of reference than an earlier service with the same name, it included an International Agency Liaison Branch, which replaced the International Agency Liaison Service. This arrangement continued until June 1962, when the Branch was transferred to a new Programme Liaison Division formed within the Programme and Budgetary Service.

As part of a major overall reorganization, the Branch became, on 1 June 1968, the International Agency Liaison Division, with an International Organizations Branch and a Food Standards Branch (owing to the fact that the Food Standards Programme is conducted jointly with WHO). On 8 July 1968, the Programme and Budgetary Service was transformed into a Development Department, and the International Agency Liaison Division became part of it. In August 1972, the Food Standards Branch, redesignated Food Standards and Control Service, was transferred to the Food Policy and Nutrition Division, and the International Organizations Branch, renamed Office for Inter-Agency Affairs, was assigned to the Office of the Director-General, where it has since remained.

The Office for Inter-Agency Affairs advises the Director-General and acts on his behalf in matters pertaining to the United Nations and other members of the UN family, organizes FAO representation at outside meetings, serves as the focal point for FAO participation in the Administrative Committee on Coordination, handles requests from intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations for status with FAO, provides backstopping for FAO's liaison offices in New York and Geneva, coordinates FAO contributions to reports requested by other organizations, and handles policy questions and — in cooperation with the Office for Special Relief Operations — evaluates emergency food aid requests arising from the World Food Programme.

Those who have provided leadership for the Office for Inter-Agency Affairs and its predecessors include the following:

The Office of Special Relief Operations (OSRO) had its origin when the Office for Sahelian Relief Operations was established on 14 May 1973. In the early 1970s, the countries of the Sahelian Zone suffered a series of droughts, culminating in a very serious situation in 1972. This led to a major relief programme being launched by the United Nations system in 1973, and on 20 May 1973 an agreement was reached between the Secretary-General of the UN and the Director-General of FAO under which FAO served as the focal point for that system-wide relief operation. Thus, during the period of the Sahelian crisis, OSRO served as the main instrument for mobilizing and coordinating the aid provided by the international community. In 1973, when the Sahelian emergency needs were most acute, food supplies were air-lifted to remote areas which could not be reached by road during the rainy season. In total, some 20 to 25,000 tonnes of cereals and protective foods were air-lifted over a period of four months in a round-the-clock operation. At the same time, seeds were provided for 400,000 hectares, and feed was distributed to save a nucleus of the herds on which the livelihood of the nomad populations depends. Operations continued on a somewhat reduced scale in 1974 and 1975. Over the entire period 1973–75, it is estimated that about 1.5 million tonnes of food grains and 70,000 tonnes of protective food were supplied by the international community, much of it through OSRO. While the Sahelian countries have experienced recurring problems since 1975, operations have never had to reach the same pitch of intensity.

On 1 October 1975, the terms of reference of OSRO were changed and, while retaining its original acronym, it was redesignated Office for Special Relief Operations, with a world-wide mandate covering all forms of emergency agricultural assistance. It works in close cooperation with WFP, which provides emergency food aid on the approval of the Director-General of FAO, and also has close links with the UN Office of the Disaster Relief Coordinator (UNDRO).

While it is not possible in the limited space available to summarize all the operations in which OSRO has been involved, special mention may be made of the relief programme in Kampuchea. Between late 1979 and late 1980 the Office handled the supply of almost 30,000 tonnes of seeds and 13,000 tonnes of fertilizers, as well as irrigation pumps, pesticides and other inputs. At the same time, a project for the rehabilitation of Kampuchea's fresh-water fishery resources was initiated. The programme was carried out in close association with UNICEF (which served as the UN family's “lead agency” for this emergency activity) as well as with WFP, UNDP, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and a number of other non-governmental organizations.

Those who have provided leadership in OSRO, under its earlier and its present names, have been:

Legal Office

This Office, which is headed by the Legal Counsel, consists of two units: the Office of the Legal Counsel and the Legislation Branch.

Historically, provision was first made for a Legal Adviser in 1948, the post appearing in an organizational chart issued on 6 July of that year. However, it was not filled until 27 December 1948, and then on a part-time consultative basis, and this arrangement continued until 30 March 1951. A Legal Officer was not again appointed until July 1952, over a year after the transfer of Headquarters from Washington to Rome. On 1 January 1953, the title of his post was changed to Chief, Liaison and Legal Affairs Section. Subsequently, the name was shortened to Legal Affairs Section, and then, in 1956, to Legal Section, at which time the Head of the Section was accorded the title of Legal Counsel. It was not until 1958, however that the term Legal Counsel was first brought fully into use.

As of 1 January 1959, the Office, which up to that time had been located in the Office of the Director-General, was transferred to the newly-created Department of Public Relations and Legal Affairs, where it was named Office of the Legal Counsel. In 1968 it was transferred back to the Office of the Director-General.

By its very nature, the principal functions of the Office of the Legal Counsel and its precursor offices have remained fairly constant over the years although, as the Organization grew, its work inevitably grew in complexity and in volume. Its responsibilities include advising the Director-General and the Organization's governing and statutory bodies on legal and constitutional questions; representing the Organization in judicial proceedings; carrying out depository functions with respect to treaties; drafting and interpreting the Basic Texts of FAO and WFP; drafting conventions and agreements, including those concluded under Articles XIV and XV of the Constitution; and dealing with legal questions arising out of the Organization's relations with governments and with other organizations. Since the CCLM was created in 1957, the Office of the Legal Counsel has serviced that Committee. As already intimated, the specific nature and volume of the legal questions which the Office handles reflect to a certain extent the programmes and activities of the Organization as a whole, whether financed from the Regular Budget or from extra-budgetary sources. In addition to the overall increases in the Office's activities, there have been some shifts in emphasis. Thus, the increase in field operations which has characterized the Organization's general evolution over the years has been reflected in an increase in legal questions related to field activities, arrangements relating to activities funded by extra-budgetary sources, and decentralization. The establishment in 1974 of a post of legal officer responsible for dealing with questions of environmental law also reflected the Organization's increased involvement in that area. Moreover, increasing attention is being placed on human rights questions, especially with respect to the right to adequate food and freedom from hunger.

A unit in the IIA had carried on activities similar to those of the present Legislation Branch as early as 1912. When the assets of IIA were absorbed into FAO, this unit was attached to the newly-created FAO Regional Office for Europe. Following the transfer of FAO Headquarters to Rome in 1951, the unit, then designated Legislative Service, was one of several organizational units placed under a Director of Information and Educational Services. In 1956, as part of the Information Division and after having been called Legislative Reference Branch for a short time, it became the Rural Legislation Branch. In 1959, it became a separate unit in the newly-created Department of Public Relations and Legal Affairs; in 1967 its name was changed to Legislation Branch. In January 1971, the Branch was transferred to the Office of the Legal Counsel, and was thus located in the Office of the Director-General.

The Legislation Branch performs the following main functions: collection and classification of legislation and treaties in the technical fields of interest to FAO and dissemination of this information, in particular through a semi-annual periodical, Food and Agricultural Legislation; preparation of other special publications and studies in comparative law concerning specialized subjects such as agrarian, water, food, fisheries, forestry, and seed legislation; and providing assistance directly to governments on legislative and institutional matters, including the study of existing national legal-institutional frameworks and the drafting of the required legislation to facilitate the achievement of particular government or regional objectives, projects and programmes.

In the Legislation Branch, too, there have been changes in emphasis. From a unit primarily concerned with collecting and classifying legislation and preparing studies based on research, it has become primarily oriented towards assistance to the field. Among the technical fields of law covered by the Branch, increasing emphasis has been placed in recent years on fisheries law on account of developments in the law of the sea and the EEZ programme, as well as on national and international water resources, land reform and agrarian law. Those who have headed the Office of the Legal Counsel, either under its present title or one of its predecessor titles, have been the following:

Office of Internal Audit and Inspection

An internal audit function was initiated in FAO in July 1947, in accordance with the Financial Regulations of the Organization, and an Internal Auditor and Control Officer was then appointed. Since that time the function has undergone a series of changes in respect of its place in the organizational structure and its name, terms of reference, reporting lines, and staffing.

From July 1947 to June 1949, the office was located in the Budget and Finance Branch, Administrative Division, reporting to the Budget and Finance Officer, and to the Director-General through the Director, Administrative Division. In January 1948 the name of the office was changed from Internal Audit and Control to Internal Audit. In July 1949, it was placed in the office of the Director, Administrative Division, reporting through the Director to the Director-General. In January 1950, Internal Audit was placed directly in the Office of the Director-General, and in July 1951 its name was changed to Internal Audit Unit. In January 1956, the name of the unit was again changed to that which it still holds, Office of Internal Audit and Inspection, and while it remained in the Office of the Director-General, until December 1975 it reported to the Director-General through the Director, Administrative Division, and thereafter, when that division was upgraded in 1960, through the Assistant Director-General, Administration and Finance Department. Since January 1976 the Chief of the Office has reported directly to the Director-General.

The title of the head of the office has also undergone changes. At the outset he was designated Internal Auditor and Control Officer. From January 1948 to December 1955, the title of Internal Auditor was used. Since January 1956, the title has been Chief, Office of Internal Audit and Inspection.

From July 1947 through December 1951, the Internal Audit staff consisted of only one professional officer and one secretary. Over the years staffing increased, to reach the figure of 21 in 1977, generally reflecting the growing size and complexity of the Programme of Work and Budget, the addition of new activities, and the consequential increases in demands upon the office.

In the early years the office's terms of reference encompassed the traditional auditing responsibilities, and covered cash, valuables, equipment, accounts and contracts. Emphasis was placed on post-payment audit of the Organization's financial and fiscal affairs. The gradual increase in the resources handled by FAO and WFP, coupled with new developments in the auditing profession, led to a broadening of the scope, responsibilities and functions of Internal Audit, which were brought into line with modern practices and standards to provide not only for financial and compliance auditing, but also auditing for economy, efficiency and the achievement of desired results. The objective of Internal Audit is, therefore, seen as assisting management by furnishing it with periodic independent, objective appraisals and audits of financial, accounting, administrative and other activities, and by identifying possible means of improving the efficiency and economy of operations and the use of resources. In carrying out its mandate, the Office of Internal Audit and Inspection coordinates its work with that of the External Auditor, with the objective of achieving complete coverage while avoiding duplication. Here it should be noted that, in common with general practice in governments and in private business, the primary responsibility of the External Auditor is to express an opinion to the Governing Bodies on the financial statements of the Organization, while Internal Audit, being an executive function, is responsible to the Director-General and is primarily concerned with day-to-day operations. In substance, however, the functions and objectives of External and Internal Auditors do not differ significantly. Although they are independent of each other, the techniques they use are frequently identical. External Auditors list and evaluate Internal Audit controls and standards to determine the degree of reliance to be placed on them. The thoroughness of the Internal Audit determines the degree of reliance and the scope of work undertaken by the External Auditor.

Those who have headed the internal auditing unit, in its various forms, have been —

Agriculture Department

The bases for three of the major substantive departments of FAO were laid shortly after the Quebec Conference, with the establishment of three divisions (which eventually became departments) to deal with economics and statistics, fisheries, and forestry and forest products, and a fourth to handle questions of nutrition. But it was over a year after FAO was established before steps were taken to initiate work on the technical aspects of agriculture. In view of this considerable delay, a few of the circumstances accompanying the beginnings of this work are worthy of note.

The basic reason for the delay was that the first Director-General, concentrating on his proposal for a World Food Board, was devoting most of his energies to this objective and to building an Economics and Statistics Division that would assist in servicing the Board if it were established. By the summer of 1946, however, Member Governments were beginning to express concern over the delay in initiating work on agriculture. In order to show that steps were being taken to develop this side of FAO's activity, the Director-General convened a Standing Advisory Committee on Agricultural Science and a Standing Advisory Committee on Agricultural Production in Copenhagen from 23 to 28 August 1946, just before the Second Session of the FAO Conference, to lay the basis for the programme of work of the Agriculture Division.

The Committees, immediately upon convening, agreed that it was not feasible to try to work separately, and they decided to meet jointly under a single Chairman.Thereafter, over the several years that standing advisory committees were maintained, this one was treated as a single Standing Advisory Committee on Agriculture. As the Agriculture Division was being developed, the idea of a dual approach to agriculture re-emerged in the form of a proposal to have two divisions dealing respectively with extension and research, but the idea was not pursued.

Following his participation in the Standing Advisory Committees' joint meeting, Dr. Ralph W. Phillips (United States) was recruited by FAO to carry the double responsibility of serving as Chief of an Animal Production Branch and of beginning the work of establishing an Agriculture Division. He reported for duty on 2 December 1946, and was joined by Dr. Vladimir Ignatieff (Canada), who had been serving in another capacity in FAO for several months, and by two secretaries. This, then, was the nucleus of what is now the Agriculture Department. During the next few months the Chiefs of the Land and Water Use Branch and the Plant Production Branch, as well as a few other staff members, were recruited.

Partly because of its late start, the resources available to the Agriculture Division were quite limited at the outset. The bulk of the budget had been allocated to the divisions already existing, with a substantial share going to the Economics and Statistics Division in view of the emphasis placed on the World Food Board proposal.

The first Director of the Agriculture Division, Dr. G. Scott Robertson (United Kingdom), took up his assignment on 11 May 1947, but served only through December of that year. The second and only other Director of the Division, Dr. F. T. Wahlen (Switzerland), assumed the post on 18 August 1949, serving until 1 July 1958, when he became Deputy Director-General. During the gaps between 2 December 1946 and 11 May 1947, and between 31 December 1947 and 18 August 1949, Dr. Ralph W. Phillips served as Acting Director of the Division.

When FAO Headquarters was transferred to Rome early in 1951, the framework of the Agriculture Division was expanded to include five Branches: Land and Water Use, Plant Production, Animal Production, Agricultural Institutions and Services, and Rural Welfare. There were also a Technical Assistance Unit and a Programme Analysis Unit in the Office of the Director. Except for the addition of an Atomic Energy Branch in September 1957, and some adjustments within the Director's office, this basic structure remained unchanged until 1 January 1959, when, as part of an overall reorganization of FAO, the Division as such was abolished and its branches were incorporated as divisions in a new Technical Department. This new Department included Land and Water Development, Plant Production and Protection, Animal Production and Health, Rural Institutions and Services, Fisheries, Forestry,and Nutrition Divisions, and an Atomic Energy Branch.

In December 1962, the Rural Institutions and Services Division was transferred to the Economics Department, which at that time was renamed the Department of Economic and Social Affairs. In October 1964, the Atomic Energy Branch was replaced by a Joint FAO/IAEA Division of Atomic Energy, located in Vienna but from the FAO side continuing to form part of the Technical Department. The Fisheries Division became a separate Fisheries Department as of 1 January 1966.

As of 1 June 1968, the Nutrition Division was transferred to what was then the Economic and Social Department, and the Technical Department became the present Agriculture Department, which thus contained Land and Water Development, Plant Production and Protection, Animal Production and Health, Forestry and Forest Industries Divisions and the Joint FAO/IAEA Division of Atomic Energy in Food and Agriculture. As of the same date, a new “ Agricultural Services Division was also established within the Department.

As of 1 January 1970, the Forestry and Forest Industries Division was removed from the Agriculture Department and transformed into a Forestry Department. An Agricultural Operations Division was established on 4 March 1974, located administratively in the Agriculture Department but to service both that Department and the Economic and Social Policy Department.

The Research Development Centre was transferred, on 1 January 1978, from the Development Department to the Office of the Assistant Director-General, Agriculture Department.

The present structure of the Department has since that time remained essentially unchanged, except that the Office of the Assistant Director-General now also includes an Environment Programme Coordinating Unit, the Secretariat of the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), and a Policy Coordination and Planning Unit.

Those who have served officially as head of the Agriculture Department and its predecessors have included the following:

Since the formation of the Technical and Agriculture Departments, their Assistant Directors-General have been assisted by the following officers:

Land and Water Development Division

The Division had its beginning on 3 February 1947, when Dr. J. Lossing Buck (United States) took up the post of Chief, Land Use Branch, in the former Agriculture Division, and was joined on the same day by Dr. Vladimir Ignatieff (Canada), who had been serving FAO in other capacities since early 1946. From that two-man beginning the Branch, whose name was expanded to Land and Water Use Branch in 1951, grew to its present strength as a Division.

The transformation from Branch to Division took place as of 1 January 1959, when the Division consisted of four Branches, dealing respectively with Soil Survey and Fertility, Land Use and Farm Management, Water Resources and Irrigation, and Agricultural Engineering. During 1959, the Division had 180 experts working in the field programme, under EPTA. When UNSF was set up in October 1958, and its first 13 projects were approved in 1959, five of these were assigned to FAO, all in the land and water field.

During the next two decades a number of changes took place in the structure of the Division:

An FFHC Fertilizer Programme, based on cooperation between FAO and the fertilizer industry, was initiated in 1960. A World Soil Resources Office was set up in 1961, to undertake work on a World Soils Map. In June 1968, the Soil Survey and Fertility Branch was divided into a Soil Resources and Survey Branch and a Soil Management, Conservation and Fertilizer Use Branch, the World Soil Resources Office being integrated into the latter. In January 1970 these two Branches were reconsolidated into a Soil Resources, Development and Conservation Service. In 1974, an International Fertilizer Supply Scheme was created, in an effort to help alleviate the fertilizer shortage in some of the poorer countries. In January 1978, the above-mentioned activities were organized into a Soil Resources, Management and Conservation Service and a Fertilizer and Plant Nutrition Service, which, in addition to the other work on fertilizers and soil fertility, incorporated the FFHC Fertilizer Programme and the International Fertilizer Supply Scheme. At the same time, responsibility for work on fertilizer economics was transferred to this Service from the Agricultural Services Division. In June 1968, the Land Use and Farm Management Branch and the Agricultural Engineering Branch were transferred to the Agricultural Services Division then being formed. At the same time the Water Resources and Irrigation Branch was divided into a Water Resources Branch and a Water Development Branch, but in January 1970 these two Branches were reconsolidated into a Water Resources and Development Service, whose name was changed in January 1974 to Water Resources, Development and Management Service.

In January 1974, a post of Remote Sensing Officer had been set up in the Office of the Assistant Director-General, Agriculture Department; in 1976–77 the activity was expanded into a Remote Sensing Unit, which was transferred in January 1978 to the Land and Water Development Division. In January 1980 it was renamed Remote Sensing Centre.

An Operations Office was set up in the Land and Water Development Division in June 1968 and was redesignated Operations Service in January 1970. Then in March 1974, when the Agricultural Operations Division was established, this Service was abolished.

Thus, during the 1980–81 biennium, the Division consisted of a Fertilizer and Plant Nutrition Service, a Water Resources, Development and Management Service, a Soil Resources, Management and Conservation Service, and a Remote Sensing Centre.

Although some of the Division's earlier responsibilities were transferred to other sectors of the Organization, the budget for its Regular Programme in 1980–81 was $7.2 million, compared with $434,000 for the 1958–59 biennium. During 1980–81 the Division was backstopping 140 field projects and was directly responsible for operating 32 projects financed under UNDP, UNEP, TCP, Trust Fund and government cooperative programmes.

The activities of the Division are aimed at assisting Member Countries to improve the standard of living in rural communities through the optimization of land use and the conservation of land and water resources for the future. These activities relate to the assessment and planning of land and water resources, soil management and efficient use of fertilizers, water development and management,conservation and reclamation, and to the support of the field programme in all these areas of activity.

Some of its major achievements in the various subject-matter areas have been the following:

• strong involvement in the development of land and water resources in developing countries over the last 25 years. The Mahaweli Development project in Sri Lanka, the Naktong River Basin Development project in the Republic of Korea, the Merrim Lagoon and Sao Francisco Development projects in Latin America, the Chad River Basin Development, Volta and Rifiji-Pangani Wami projects in Africa are examples;

• intensive groundwater resource surveys and development in Cyprus, Egypt, Greece, Jamaica, Jordan and the Philippines. The Division has also assisted a number of governments to assess the land resources of their countries, e.g. Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, Chile, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, Syria and Venezuela;

• promoting effective fertilizer use. The Division has been strongly engaged from its early days in this type of activity, culminating in the creation in 1960 of the Fertilizer Programme, which has covered 38 countries since its inception, and the procurement of fertilizer under the International Fertilizer Supply Scheme (IFS) to the order of 50,000 tonnes over the last six years;

• soil conservation and reclamation activities, e.g. in the Kalasin project in Thailand, the Prektnot pilot project in what was then Cambodia, the Ahero demonstration project in Kenya, and land reclamation projects in Egypt, Iran and Iraq;

• training in water development and management, effective fertilizer use, soil conservation, organic recycling, soil survey and remote sensing, in order to meet the ever-increasing need for qualified national staff to deal with land and water resources;

• recognizing, in recent years, the potential contribution of remote sensing techniques to land and water development, relief operations, early warnings and the monitoring of droughts and floods. The Remote Sensing Centre also provides backstopping for a number of field projects and programmes conducted by other divisions;

• acting as a forum for international coordination and correlation. The Division was instrumental in reaching international agreement on a common legend for the preparation of the Soil Map of the World. Its publication A Framework for Land Evaluation has promoted an international approach to assessing the productivity of land resources;

• initiating, in 1965, a popular series of Soils Bulletins and Irrigation and Drainage Papers which cover major issues of interest to field staff and their counterparts, and have had a major impact on the dissemination of up-to-date knowledge in land and water resources development.

At the beginning, the Division's activities were essentially advisory, and a major part of its resources was devoted to the collection and exchange of information. Starting in 1950, increased emphasis was put on field programme activities, which became one of the Division's major preoccupations. Its involvement peaked in 1968, when it was responsible for the operation of one third of FAO's field programme. A major shift took place in 1974, when operational responsibility for field programme activities was removed from the technical divisions, which were then charged primarily with backstopping.

In the early years, major attention was given to programmes sponsored by European countries (working parties of the European Commission on Agriculture)and by the International Rice Commission. Later, the scope for international cooperation broadened considerably, as reflected by the initiation of regional land and water use activities, correlation work for the Soil Map of the World, and cooperative arrangements with the International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage and the International Society of Soil Science.

During the 1960s, soil and water activities under both field and regular programmes focused on engineering aspects of water development, prefeasibility studies for large development projects and the preparation of methodological guidelines. The Fertilizer Programme and, to a certain extent, activities through the International Rice Commission were the only operations directly concerned with agricultural issues at the farmer's immediate level.

By the early 1970s, greater recognition was being given to problems of soil and water management and to the application of resources survey work to specific field problems. As a result, a number of new activities were undertaken to meet new priorities as well as the overall objectives of rural development:

• creation of a broader base for the Fertilizer Programme, with due attention to such other related inputs as seeds, pesticides, and credit;

• rehabilitation of irrigation systems;

• improvement of farm water management;

• recycling of organic wastes;

• promotion of biological nitrogen fixation through leguminous crops;

• evaluation of the supporting and productive capacity of the world's lands (agro-ecological zones study);

• new emphasis on soil and water conservation, including combatting desertification;

• emphasis on training the effect of which is felt at the grass-roots level;

• increased emphasis on the health aspects of water resources development, in cooperation with WHO;

• closer cooperation with other organizations (e.g. FAO/UNIDO/World Bank group on fertilizer demand);

• orientation of both Regular Programme and field activities to improving the living conditions and the agricultural productivity of the small farmer;

• concentration on energy-saving technologies, with simultaneous emphasis on the need to assign priority to agriculture in the allocation of available energy resources.

The following officers have provided leadership in the Land and Water Development Division and its predecessor Branch:

Plant Production and Protection Division

On 22 June 1947 a Plant Industry Branch had its formal beginning, when Dr. L. E. Kirk (Canada) took up the post of Chief of that Branch, in what was then the Agriculture Division. He and three other staff members who had been recruited for the Branch earlier in the year formed the nucleus of what was to become the Plant Production and Protection Division. The name of the Branch was changed to Plant Production Branch in 1951.

The transition to Division status was made on 1 January 1959, at which time provision was made for a Crop Production and Improvement Branch and a Crop Protection Branch. By 1962 the number of branches had been increased to four, dealing with Food Crops and Horticulture, Industrial Crops, Pasture and Fodder Crops, and Crop Protection. Two years later a more complex divisional structure had evolved, with branches dealing with Field Food Crops, Pasture and Fodder Crops, Fruit and Vegetable Crops, Industrial Crops, and Crop Protection. This structure was maintained until June 1968, when an Operations Office was added, although for a number of years a small unit had already existed in the Division to deal with operational matters. In June 1968 the Division, which had been a part of the Technical Department, became a part of the newly-formed Agriculture Department. Then, as of 8 July 1968, a regrouping of the activities of the Division (which for a few weeks had been designated Plant Industry Division) took place as follows:

Crop and Grasslands Production Service

Crop Protection Branch

Pasture and Fodder Crops Branch

Fruit and Vegetable Crops Branch

Field Crops Branch

Operations Office

When the major reorganization of FAO was put fully into effect in January 1970, three of the branches were consolidated into a single service, and one branch became a Unit; the Division thus contained the following:

Crop and Grasslands Production Service

Plant Protection Service

Crop Ecology and Genetic Resources Unit

Operations Service

In March 1974, when the Agricultural Operations Division was established, the Operations Service was abolished, but otherwise the structure indicated above has remained unchanged; the Crop Ecology and Genetic Resources Unit is to be redesignated Crop Genetic Resources Centre as of January 1982.

The Division is responsible for activities covering a broad range of subject-matter areas, each of which is discussed very briefly below, together with a few of the more significant accomplishments achieved in it.

In field food crops, a cooperative programme for testing hybrid maize in European and Mediterranean countries, initiated in 1947, had a substantial impact, and was taken over fully by the governments concerned in 1958. One of the activities sponsored by the International Rice Commission (IRC), established in March1949, was an International Rice Hybridization project. A World Catalogue of Genetic Stocks of Rice was published in 1950, to be followed in 1952 by the first issue of an IRC Newsletter. The first edition of a World Catalogue of Genetic Stocks of Wheat was issued in 1950. A Near East Wheat and Barley Breeding project, with major emphasis on training, was established in 1952, and in the same year, Agricultural Development Paper No. 28 on Cereal Breeding Procedures was published. Among the Division's other major accomplishments in field food crops have been —

• establishment of regional projects on field food crops, the improvement of the nutritional quality of wheat and barley, and the supply of large quantities of food-crop seeds in the Near East and North Africa;

• establishment of a regional project on root-crop development in the Pacific region;

• training over 450 persons in various aspects of field food-crop work;

• issuing numerous publications, technical reports and manuals;

• providing intensive technical backstopping for many field projects.

Activities in horticulture were initiated in 1954, when a horticulturist and viticulturist was appointed. Work in this area has included —

• encouraging the cooperative exchange of plant materials;

• organizing a regional network on olive research in the Mediterranean region;

• developing a regional centre for dates, in Iraq;

• emphasizing protected cultivation of vegetables through field projects currently operational in the Gulf States and Mediterranean countries;

• projects to encourage the production of flowers and mushrooms.

In earlier years, the industrial crops that received the most emphasis were the traditional ones, such as rubber, coffee, cocoa and tea. More recent emphasis has been placed on food crops for domestic consumption and upon sugarcane, cotton (for oilseed and fibre), and oil crops, particularly coconut, sunflower, groundnut, sesame and safflower. In addition to assistance to countries with traditional plantation systems, attention has recently focused on the problems of new producing countries: diversification through the promotion of plantation crops, updating of planting materials and practices, and dealing with problems of smallholders in countries desiring to encourage them to begin production of plantation-type crops.

Much attention has been given to improving grassland and pasture crops. Activities in this area have included —

• carrying out in-depth ecological surveys, particularly in North Africa and the Near East during the early 1950s, to provide the basis for introducing improved range management programmes;

• carrying out ecological surveys in a number of countries, leading to two major FAO publications on The Grass Cover of Africa and The Grass Cover of India;

• executing, particularly since the 1960s, field projects designed to improve both the range feed supply and tropical pastures. By the end of the 1960s, 23 countries were receiving or had requested assistance on range management or native pastures, and 93 field posts had been established for this work;

• training activities, particularly in the early 1970s, including courses on tropical pastures in the Asia and Pacific Region, and training programmes on tropical pastures and range management for countries in Africa south of the Sahara, with assistance from the Swedish International Development Authority (SIDA). A recent (1980) publication on Tropical Forage Legumes is already being widely used as a text and reference volume;

• during the 1970s, placing considerable emphasis on increasing the use of nitrogen-fixing legumes in improving pasture production;

• promoting the integration of a number of national research stations into a network to facilitate research, training and extension work on tropical pastures;

• focusing attention on the development of new forage plant resources in East Africa, including the collection and evaluation of both indigenous and introduced plants in living nurseries, preserving promising materials, and undertaking seed multiplication and pre-extension work;

• conducting, jointly with the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) a programme for the ecological management of arid and semi-arid rangelands, initially in North Africa and the Near East, and more recently including Latin America and Asia and the Pacific.

From the beginnings of the Organization, much emphasis has been placed on seed production and distribution. Already in the late 1940s, experimental seeds were supplied to a number of countries under the UNRRA Transfer Fund, and activities relating to plant genetic resources were initiated. Special activities in more recent decades have included —

• organizing, from 1958 to 1962, a World Seed Campaign, in which 79 Member Countries of FAO participated. Special emphasis was placed on this activity during 1961, which was designated World Seed, Year;

• establishing a Seed Improvement and Development Programme in 1973, to continue and reinforce the earlier work. By July 1980,118 countries and 119 technical institutions and organizations were participating. Between 1974 and 1980, about 400,000 seed samples were dispatched to 140 countries for experimental purposes. In 1979–80, emergency assistance included the shipment of over 44,000 tons of seeds to 39 countries. Also under this Programme, seed production and training centres have been established in 20 Asian, African and Latin American countries, more than 1,100 persons have been trained in various aspects of seed technology, and a number of training publications and other information materials on seed technology have been published.

Work on plant genetic resources was initiated to a limited extent in the late 1940s, following a recommendation by the First Session of the Standing Advisory Committee on Agriculture in 1946. Particular attention was given to cataloguing genetic stocks of wheat and rice, encouraging plant exploration, and the testing and conservation of genetic materials. A regional centre for plant genetic resources was established in Turkey, and support was given to the establishment of a post-graduate training course at the University of Birmingham. The UN Conference on the Human Environment (Stockholm, 1972) having recommended increased activity in this area, an International Board for Plant Genetic Resources (IBPGR) was established in 1974 with financing through the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), and a Secretariat located in the Crop Ecology and Genetic Resources Unit of the Division. A global programme rapidly emerged, focused initially on wheat, rice, maize, sorghum, millet and Phaseolus, and more recently also on coconuts, bananas, plantains, tropical vegetables, forage plants, cotton and coffee. Efforts are being made through technical assistance to strengthen national plant genetic resource programmes.

The effective use of plant genetic resources is, of course, closely related to the agro-climatological conditions under which crops are grown. In view of the importance of agrometeorology and crop ecology to agriculture, after a joint FAO/Unesco/WMO meeting held in Rome in 1960, a cooperative project was launched, leading to the publication in 1963, 1969, 1975 and 1976 of agro-climatological surveys related respectively to semi-arid situations in the Near East, Eastern Africa, the Andean Zone, and the Sahelian Zone; a further survey of the humid tropics of Southeast Asia is currently being conducted. In 1971 a beginning was made on the creation of a climatic data bank which, as it grew, provided the agroclimatic data base for the agro-ecological zones project of the Land and Water Development Division (see page 95). Crop monitoring activities were initiated for the Sahel, and the availability of modern minicomputer systems has made it possible to expand the data bank and retrieve and interpret information much more readily. Agrometeorological crop monitoring is being expanded in the developing countries, since it can make an important contribution to national and international food security.

Work in plant protection was also included among the early activities of the former Agriculture Division and its Plant Industry Branch, beginning with an international meeting, convened in London in 1947, to study the control of losses in stored grains. The papers presented there provided the basis for an Agricultural Study on Preservation of Grains in Storage, issued later in the same year. Following these initial efforts, plant protection work expanded substantially.

The safe and efficient use of pesticides has long been kept under review by FAO in collaboration with WHO, and an FAO Committee of Experts on Pesticides in Agriculture was established in 1962. A model certification and approval scheme on international specifications for agricultural pesticides was formulated by the FAO Panel of Experts on Pesticide Specifications, Registration Requirements and Application Standards, and Guidelines for Legislation concerning the Registration for Sale and Marketing of Pesticides (1969) and a Model Scheme for the Establishment of National Organizations for the Official Control of Pesticides (1970) have been published, the former jointly with WHO. The Panel also prepared a Manual on the Use of FAO Specifications for Plant Protection Products (1971), covering more than 100 technical-grade pesticides and over 400 formulations. Since then a total of 350 specifications on individual pesticides have been published. In conjunction with the Collaborative International Pesticides Analytical Council (CIPAC), the Panel also prepared a Handbook of Analysis of Technical and Formulated Pesticides (1970).

Acceptable daily intakes and maximum acceptable levels for residues in food are established, in collaboration with WHO, through a Panel of Experts on Pesticide Residues and the Environment, which has studied about 120compounds. From this work, since 1965, Evaluations of the Toxicity of Pesticide Residues in Food have been published annually and circulated to Member Governments, thus providing the basic material for the Joint FAO/WHO Codex Alimentarius Commission's Sub-Committee for Residues of Pesticides in Food.

Other work related to the safe and efficient use of pesticides has included —

• conducting two world-wide surveys, in 1965 and 1968, which, together with more recent work,indicate that over 300 animal and plant species appear to have developed resistance to one or more pesticides. This total is mainly made up of insects and mites, but also includes rodents and plant pathogens as well as some weeds suspected to be resistant to herbicides. The matter is of particular importance as regards stored-grain pests, upon which a publication has been prepared. FAO has also published a Model Extension Leaflet on Pest Resistance to Pesticides and a similar publication on Resistance of Plant Pathogens to Pesticides;

• holding a Government Consultation on the International Standardization of Pesticide Registration Requirements (Rome, 1977), which was the starting point for more intensive efforts to deal with this problem.

Weed control is also an important aspect of FAO's plant protection work. Information is provided to Member Countries on progress in weed science, international collaboration on weed control is promoted, and technical assistance is given to Member Countries upon request. In 1970 an FAO International Weed Control Conference was held in the United States, its proceedings being published by the Weed Society of America. FAO also published a handbook on The Utilization of Aquatic Plants in 1968, and updated it in 1979.

In plant pathology, a number of expert advisory groups during the 1960s provided information on a series of potentially serious disease problems of wheat, maize, coconut, coffee and some other important crops, and recommended ways in which FAO could provide assistance to affected countries. In 1967 FAO held a Symposium on Crop Losses, from which grew an international collaborative programme with the basic objective of comparing methods of measuring and monitoring such losses. One of the results of this work was the publication in 1970 of an FAO Manual on Crop Loss Assessment Methods, followed in 1971 by a new edition published by the Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux; supplements to this edition were subsequently issued, the last being currently in press. Other international activities supported by FAO over the years have included technical assistance related to the control of lethal yellowing of coconuts, Septoria of cereals, Fusarium of maize and leaf rust of coffee. Another important development in connection with disease control work in the field has been an attempt to develop disease-resistant varieties of coffee and wheat through plant breeding, with special emphasis on horizontal resistance.

Rodents and birds are among the pests against which crops must be protected, and Member Countries have been provided with advice, training and assistance in dealing with these vertebrate pests since 1947. In recent years particular attention has been given to the grain-eating birds of sub-Saharan Africa and to the control of vertebrate pests in Pakistan. Bibliographies on rodent pest biology covering the periods 1950–1969 and 1970–1974 have been prepared in collaboration with WHO, and this series of bibliographies is being kept up to date.

About 60 countries across Africa and Asia are threatened periodically by devastating plagues of locusts. FAO has been concerned with locust control since 1951, when a number of these countries sought assistance in the solution of the problem and an FAO Desert Locust Programme was developed to foster international cooperation and action to control the pest. Under a US $5 million UNDP-financed project executed by FAO in 1960–1970, regular surveys and reporting services were established on an international scale. To promote collective action, FAO helped to create two regional organizations and three commissions in the desert locust area. By 1971 the Desert Locust Control Organization for Eastern Africa (DLCO-EA) and the Organisation commune de lutte antiacridienne et de lutte antiaviaire (OCLALAV) were established.Financed by participating governments, these regional bodies contribute to continuity of action even during non-plague periods. The programmes of work of the three commissions, which function under the aegis of FAO, each with its own secretariat, are coordinated through the FAO Desert Locust Control Committee (DLCC), whose work is supported by an International Desert Locust Trust Fund and which meets annually with the three commissions.Technical assistance is also provided to the Organisation Internationale du criquet migrateur africain (OICMA) and to the International Red Locust Control Organization for Central and Southern Africa (IRLCO-CSA). In order to assist in strengthening the plant protection capabilities of the countries in the locust region, to enable them to deal effectively with plant protection problems generally and cope with locust plagues when they occur, a Special Action Programme for Strengthening of Plant Protection was initiated in 1979.

Integrated approaches to pest control have received increasing attention in the agricultural community in recent years. Through an FAO Panel of Experts on Integrated Pest Control, formed in 1966, up-to-date information is obtained as a basis for advising Member Governments, providing technical supervision of field projects, arranging training programmes, and issuing publications. After a Panel proposal for a world-wide project on research and training in integrated pest control had been approved by UNEP, an FAO/UNEP Cooperative Global Programme for the Development and Application of Integrated Pest Control in Agriculture was implemented in 1975. A first publication of Guidelines for Integrated Control of Cotton Insect Pests, issued in 1973, has been followed by similar guidelines for rice, maize and sorghum.

The 1947 international meeting and publication of Preservation of Grains in Storage referred to above were followed by a Manual of Fumigation for Insect Control, whose second edition has been reprinted three times. Over the years,training courses have been arranged and technical assistance projects executed.In 1977, the FAO Conference established a Special Account for the Prevention of Food Losses and endorsed a special effort which has as one of its major 101 components the reduction of losses in storage. Leadership in this special programme being assigned to the Agricultural Services Division, the work is described below (see pages 109–110).

Prevention of the spread of insects and plant diseases across national borders has long been a concern of FAO. In order to introduce uniform plant quarantine regulations based on sound biological grounds, an International Plant Protection Convention was approved by the Sixth Session of the FAO Conference in 1951; it was amended by the Twentieth Session in 1979 to adapt it to new developments in international trade. FAO assistance in establishing post-entry quarantine stations for the safe introduction of new plant materials has been provided to several Member Governments, as well as support in developing national plant quarantine regulations. Training has been a major element of these activities.

Another major task of FAO related to plant quarantine is to collate reports on the distribution of major plant pests, and to disseminate this information to Member Countries together with details of the phytosanitary regulations of individual countries, in order to facilitate international trade in plants and plant products. The FAO Plant Protection Bulletin, which began publication in 1952,is used as a medium for the dissemination of such information, received by the FAO World Reporting Service on Plant Diseases and Pests established under the International Plant Protection Convention of 1951. FAO Regional Plant Protection Commissions in Asia and the Pacific, the Caribbean and the Near East are a further means of achieving the objectives of the Convention.

Those who have provided leadership of the Plant Production and Protection Division and its predecessor Branch have been the following:

Animal Production and Health Division

This Division had its beginning on 2 December 1946, when Dr. Ralph W. Phillips (United States) took up the post of Chief of what was then the Animal Industry Branch and began the task of building up the Branch and the Agriculture Division of which it was a part. The name of the Branch was changed to Animal Production Branch in 1951.

The transition to division status was made on 1 January 1959, at which time the Division received its present name; it then consisted of an Animal Production Branch, a Dairy Branch, and an Animal Health Branch. In June 1968 an Operations Office was added. In January 1970, as part of an overall reorganization, the branches were upgraded to services and the Animal Production and Dairy Branches were consolidated, so that the Division was constituted as follows:

Animal Health Service

Animal Production and Dairy Service

Operations Service

In March 1974, when the Agricultural Operations Division was established, the Operations Service was abolished. This resulted in changes in functions, scope and methods of work, and some consequential restructuring, at the completion of which, in April 1974, the Division's structure was as follows:

Livestock Research and Education Service

Meat and Milk Development Service

Animal Health Service

Livestock Policy and Planning Unit

The last of these was abolished in 1975.

A further re-alignment of the Division took place in June 1978, and it then assumed its present structure which, in addition to the Office of Director, comprises the following services:

Animal Production Service

Meat and Dairy Service

Animal Health Service

The programme of work that was developed following the establishment of the Animal Industry Branch late in 1946 was designed to assist Member Countries to bring about improvements in livestock and poultry productivity through application of modern knowledge to all aspects of the industry, including improvements through breeding, nutrition, range and pasture management, reducing losses by controlling diseases and parasites, and better methods of processing and marketing animal products. Special emphasis was placed on the fostering of inter-country cooperation among workers. These aims were approached by meetings convened by FAO, by participation in international congresses and other gatherings, by encouraging the formation of regional organizations of governments and of scientific workers in animal husbandry, by issuing technical publications, and by initiating, stimulating and furthering the development of action programmes, including the rendering of very substantial amounts of technical assistance as funds became available for field activities. The summaries given below indicate, in broad outline and with some examples, the scope and nature of the work that has been carried out.

Much attention has been given to animal health problems, from the beginning of FAO's agricultural work. An Ad Hoc Advisory Committee on Animal Health was convened in Washington in 1947 to advise on the nature and content of i work to be undertaken in the veterinary field. Also in that year, activities were begun to assist affected countries in the control of rinderpest.

FAO and the European Commission for the Control of Foot-and-Mouth Disease, one of FAO's statutory bodies, have played a leading role in coordinating vaccination campaigns in Southeastern Europe to combat foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) epizootics in Turkey caused by virus type SAT-1 (1962), subtype A-22 (1964), and type Asia-1 (1973). To consolidate the results achieved in recent years in Europe, the Commission, in collaboration with FAO and the Office international des épizooties (OIE), is promoting intensified coordinated action to remove the remaining sources of infection on the continent.

FAO has actively assisted countries in the control of major infectious diseases. Following an emergency consultation organized by FAO in Lebanon in August 1960, African horse sickness, which invaded almost the entire Near East Region between 1959 and 1963, was eradicated through the efforts of the countries concerned, with FAO technical assistance. Rinderpest campaigns in Africa and in Asia and the Pacific have also been supported. A recent major activity has been the emergency assistance provided to countries in Latin America and the Caribbean faced with the problem of African swine fever, when the disease spread to the Western Hemisphere in 1978.

Following the Seventeenth Session of the FAO Conference in 1973, a long-term programme for the control of African animal trypanosomiasis was launched. After a preparatory phase had been initiated in 1975 and completed in 1979, the Twentieth Session, in November 1979, endorsed a proposal for the implementation of a full-scale programme and decided to establish a Commission on African Animal Trypanosomiasis, which held its First Session at FAO Headquarters in April 1980. The Programme, which is executed through an Inter-Secretariat Coordinating Group, an Ecological/Technical Advisory Panel and a Development Advisory Panel, aims at the formulation of a long-term strategy for the control of African animal trypanosomiasis and its vectors, with due recognition of environmental considerations and the concomitant planning and implementation of sound programmes for rural development.

Tick-borne diseases and their vectors were identified as a priority area by an Expert Consultation on Animal Production and Health Research held in Copenhagen in 1974. Subsequently, projects have been executed in about 20countries in all regions of the world. Among the most important achievements have been contributions to the understanding of East Coast Fever and the ecology of East African ticks. In addition to the extensive field programme, current work in this respect includes the collation and dissemination of information; training courses and workshops; preparation of a practical field manual on tick control; promotion of a World Acaricide Resistance Reference Centre; production of an FAO acaricide resistance test kit; and regular consultations with expert groups.

Animal health matters relating to the meat trade have been intensively studied.In 1973 a report on Non-tariff Barriers to the Meat Trade Arising from Health Requirements, published as a first supplementary report to the FAO/WHO/OIE Animal Health Yearbook, was followed by an FAO Expert Consultation on Non-tariff Trade Barriers against Meat and on Disease-free Zones, held at Pendik, Turkey, in October 1973.

Activities relating to disease intelligence have for many years featured the collection and analysis of information on the occurrence and control of animal diseases throughout the world, which is disseminated by publication in the Animal Health Yearbook.

Animal health education and training have been well covered over the years through individual fellowships. Five permanent post-graduate training centres on veterinary specializations have been established and several hundred veterinary teachers have been trained in one-year courses.

In the animal production sector, attention has been given to three major areas: animal genetic resources, feed resources, and livestock production systems.

In the early work on animal genetic resources, emphasis was placed on the collection and publication of information on breeds in different parts of the world, e.g. the cattle breeds of India and Pakistan, Africa and Europe and the sheep breeds of the Mediterranean. This work still continues, and in recent years publications have been issued on the water buffalo. However, the emphasis has been shifted to advising Member Governments on how best to utilize their valuable animal genetic resources in the development process. This work has been supported by contributions to trust funds, particularly from SIDA, and the transfer of some valuable genetic material has been made possible through exchanges of bull semen. Work has also been carried out on evaluating breeds and strains in international strain comparison tests and national evaluation programmes,financed with funds from UNDP and other sources. In the mid-1970s, FAO and UNEP began to collaborate in surveying the world's animal genetic resources, with special emphasis on breeds which might be endangered or close to extinction. Special mention in this regard should be made of a survey of trypanotolerant livestock in Africa, carried out in collaboration with the International Livestock Centre for Africa, and of studies of prolific sheep breeds. This phase of FAO/UNEP collaboration culminated in a Technical Consultation on Animal Genetic Resources Conservation and Management, held in Rome in June 1980.

Although an early Agricultural Study had dealt with Nutritional Deficiencies in Livestock, much of FAO's original activity concerning feeding was concentrated on extensive production systems on rangelands and pastures. Increased emphasis has more recently been placed on the use of agro-industrial byproducts for animal feeding. Studies also have been published on the use of waste products, including animal wastes, in modern feeding systems. In the early 1970s, FAO helped to establish, in collaboration with institutions in France, the Federal Republic of Germany and the United States, an international network for feeds information which has developed an agreed international nomenclature for feeds and a system for presenting feed data. The network has now grown to the point that it has been possible to decrease FAO's involvement in it.

During the 1970s, increasing attention was given to livestock production, with a view to providing advice to Member Governments on the development of viable systems adapted to their local economic and climatic situations and to the problems of the small farmer. Under the priorities established by governments, cattle production has been in the forefront, but during the last few years efforts have been made to encourage the raising of smaller species, such as sheep, poultry and even such minor species as rabbits, since all of these play a very large role in the systems adopted by farmers throughout the world.

Dairy cattle were of course not overlooked as FAO's work on animal breeding, feeding and management began. The main task at the outset was to provide technical assistance in milk production and plant management in connection with the Milk Conservation Programme established by UNICEF in the late 1940s. FAO cooperation led to the setting up of some 70 milk plants in different countries. The total investment by UNICEF amounted to US $30 million, and the cost of FAO's technical assistance was some US $3.5 million, obtained from UNICEF and EPTA/UNDP. The training of personnel was another major dairy industry activity in which FAO took the lead from 1956 onward. A third was the creation, in cooperation with the International Dairy Federation, of a government expert committee to draw up a Code of Principles concerning Milk and Milk Products, designed to protect consumers by defining standards for milk products in international trade. In the late 1960s the work of this committee, which met annually, was integrated with that of the¹ Codex Alimentarius Commission (see page 127), but its technical secretariat remained with the Dairy Branch.

By the end of the 1960s, the Dairy Branch was providing technical backstopping to a great number of field experts and supervising a programme for dairy training at all levels which, with support from the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA), had grown into a global project providing assistance to practically all developing countries.

An International Scheme for the Coordination of Dairy Development was launched after its approval in principle by the Fifteenth Session of the FAO Conference in 1969. Ad hoc consultations in 1970 and 1972 approved the working methods of the Scheme, and extra-budgetary resources were obtained from Finland. By the end of 1980, 49 countries had received assistance of different types. Follow-up activities, project implementation, consultancies, and particularly investment, amounting to some US $250 million, were largely financed on a bilateral basis by supporting governments.

Dairy activities have been strengthened and now lay particular emphasis on assisting institutions in individual countries and technical cooperation among developing countries (TCDC). Over the years, several publications were prepared to support this training work.

Side by side with the increasing assistance in the dairy field, and in order to meet the requests of Member Governments, an International Meat Development Scheme, similar in principle to the scheme for dairy development, was set up in 1974 with SIDA support. By the end of 1980, assistance under the Scheme had been provided to 30 countries, in 25 of them in association with activities supported under the dairy development scheme.

Those who have served as Director of the Animal Production and Health Division, or as Chief of its precursor Branch, have been the following:

During the period May–December 1949, Dr. Ralph W. Phillips (United States) continued to supervise the work of the Branch from his post as Deputy Director of the Agriculture Division. Dr. E. A. Eichhorn (United States) served as Acting Director, Animal Production and Health Division, from December 1968 to March 1969, and Dr. R.B. Griffiths (United Kingdom) served in this capacity from December 1975 to August 1977 and from July to September 1980.

Agricultural Services Division

On 1 June 1968, when the first stages of a substantial reorganization of FAO were put into effect, they included the creation of an Agricultural Services Division, which was composed as follows:

Production Economics and Farm Management Service (formerly the Land Use and Farm Management Branch of the Land and Water Development Division);

Agricultural Engineering Service (consisting of most of the former Agricultural Engineering Branch of the Land and Water Development Division;

Food and Agricultural Processing Service (redesignated Food and Agricultural Industries Service on 8 July 1968. This Service was composed of food industry and technology elements transferred from the Nutrition Division and a few elements of the former Agricultural Engineering Branch of the Land and Water Development Division);

Operations Office (abolished when the Agricultural Operations Division was formed on 4 March 1974).

Two further units were added to the new Division in April 1973:

Marketing and Credit Service (composed of elements transferred from the Land Reform, Cooperatives, Credit, Marketing and Rural Sociology Service of what was then the Rural Institutions Division);

Agricultural Requisites Unit (transferred from the the Economic Analysis Division and placed in the Office of the Director. This unit was transferred in January 1978 to the Land and Water Development Division, where it became part of the Fertilizer and Plant Nutrition Service).

In June–August 1973, most of the staff of the Production Economics and Farm Management Service were outposted to other technical divisions to provide micro-economic inputs into the Indicative World Plan, the remaining officers constituting a Farm Management Unit. In July 1978, the Unit was strengthened and re-established as the Farm Management and Production Economics Service.

Thus the Division arrived at its present structure, which includes the following four major Services:

Farm Management and Production Economics Service

Agricultural Engineering Service

Food and Agricultural Industries Service

Marketing and Credit Service

The titles of these Services indicate in broad outline the nature of most of the work undertaken by the Division. For activities concerned with the prevention of food losses, a Coordinator is located in the Office of the Director. The summaries set out below provide more detailed indications of work and accomplishments in all these major subject-matter areas.

Work inform management and production economics has been concentrated on planning, organization and evaluation of the total farm unit and the economic analysis of crop and livestock production enterprises. Member Countries have been assisted in the collection, processing and analysis of micro-economic and technical production data for agricultural planning and policy formulation, with emphasis on the adoption of new agricultural technologies; diversification of activities; selection of new farming systems; questions of farm size, structure and organizational forms and their effects on production levels; employment and income of agricultural producers and workers; and land use planning. Current programme emphasis is on the establishment of a data bank for micro-economic and technical production statistics, strengthening farm management education in Member Countries, finding ways of raising the incomes of small farmers, and developing methods of improving the productivity of less favourable environments. A special FAO farm management data collection and analysis system has been developed to support the FAO field programme. To meet the growing demand for input/output coefficients and production cost data for agricultural farming systems and individual enterprises, a computer-based data-bank system has recently been established, making possible the selective retrieval of information required for preparing feasibility studies and investment proposals, assessing costs and values of inputs and outputs, and determining comparative economic advantages, thus providing valuable backstopping for field projects.

Work in agricultural engineering has been concentrated over the years on abroad range of problems, including the improvement of small tools and implements, the introduction of appropriate types of mechanization, the servicing of farm machinery, the improvement of food storage structures and farm buildings generally, the use of animal power and commercial energy in agriculture, and the use of aircraft in seeding, fertilizer application and pest control. Work on these problems is based on the principle that the technology chosen by individual countries must reflect the broad social, economic and political features of their rural sectors. Since these technologies are location-specific, the most appropriate farm level and pace for introduction can only be determined after an assessment of the situation prevailing in each different location within a country.

Under the field programme, developing countries are assisted in formulating policies and preparing projects to implement specific programmes for the achievement of national objectives and goals for development. Projects around the world are aimed at improving the design, testing, selection, operation and maintenance of farm machinery for land development and farm production; organizing and conducting training programmes for farmers, operators, mechanics and government personnel concerned with the effective and efficient utilization of farm machinery to improve production and the well-being of all rural people; and developing efficient support services for mechanization. Guidance has also been provided on the design of and investment in storage structures, storage methods, and training in crop handling and storage methods. Attention is also given to improved animal production structures and handling methods for feed processing, forage handling and storage, and manure handling and disposal. Achievements in these respects have included the development of low-cost maize drying and storage cribs for the humid tropics, and providing assistance in the construction of some $60 million worth of warehouses, silos and storage bins. A regional network for agricultural engineering has been developed in Asia.

The consumption of commercial energy for agricultural production accounts for less than 3.5% of total world energy consumption. Nonetheless, the energy needs of farmers are critical, since most technologies for increasing agricultural production rely heavily on energy-intensive inputs such as chemical fertilizers, farm machinery, pump irrigation and pesticides. The increasing cost of commercial energy being therefore of major concern to all countries, energy use in agriculture is being monitored, and ways of improving it, including drawing on alternative energy sources, are being promoted.

Food and agricultural industries activities include work in the processing of cereals, starchy roots and tubers, fruits and vegetables, pulses, oil crops, sugar crops, nuts, beverages, spices and essential oils, with a view to increasing food supplies and to providing a ready outlet for agricultural products. Among nonfood products, concentration on vegetable and animal fibres, cotton, sisal, kenaf, silk, bides and skins, and rubber is mainly geared to expanding employment opportunities and increasing foreign exchange earnings. In recent years, greater emphasis has been placed on the development of composite flours and the processing of fruits and vegetables, in the food sector, and the processing of wool and in particular silk, in the non-food sector. Increasing attention has also been given to the utilization of agricultural by-products, with a view to developing and encouraging the use of suitable technologies, since the efficient use of such by-products is becoming increasingly important in both developed and developing countries.

The Nineteenth Session of the FAO Conference in 1977 approved the establishment of a field-oriented Action Programme for the Prevention of Post-Harvest Food Losses. Although it is still in the early stages of development, by July 1980 a total of US $13.2 million had been received for financing the Programme, against an initial target of US $20 million, and a further US $5.9 million had been pledged under Trust Fund arrangements. 118 project requests, totalling US $32 million, had been received from all regions, and 58 of these, costing US $12.3 million, had been approved. A further 13 projects had been approved for submission to Trust Fund donors; four of these had already been adopted by donors, at a total cost of US $1.4 million. In the initial phase, emphasis has been placed on reducing losses in the staple foods, i.e. the food grains and roots and tubers.

Marketing and farm supply work has been concentrated on the marketing needs of small farmers, and on ensuring the adequate availability of production inputs to farmers, particularly in the developing countries. Advice and assistance have been provided to Member Countries on the improvement of marketing organizations and facilities; the strengthening of governmental support services; the development of efficient export marketing methods; assessing the viability of investments in assembly and wholesale markets and in transport, storage and related processing facilities to serve marketing needs and to avoid food losses between producer and consumer; the establishment and management of marketing boards, price stabilization mechanisms and national food reserve stocks; and the organization of training courses on marketing management. In recent years, increased attention has been given to marketing problems related to post-harvest systems of staple food crops and to government policies related to the establishment and replenishment of reserve food stocks in connection with national food security programmes. Many countries have requested FAO assistance in organizing the export of out-of-season fruits and vegetables. Assistance has been provided to governments in establishing and maintaining the efficiency of practical supply channels for agricultural inputs, including guidance on the planning and financing of the essential infrastructure, and training in marketing management and methods, not only for staff of public and cooperative organizations but also for independent wholesalers and retailers. Important elements of agricultural credit work have included the undertaking of case studies in rural credit to compensate for the lack of reliable data on the nature of farmers' demand for credit and the performance of credit agencies in meeting it, improving the efficiency of agricultural credit institutions, organizing institutional credit as part of an integrated rural development programme, setting up specialized training institutions and in-service training programmes for national staff of agricultural credit services, advising on the establishment and operation of credit and savings mechanisms, bringing central banks into closer involvement with agricultural credit development, and encouraging the setting up of effective cooperative credit systems. While this was formerly considered mainly in terms of its association with cooperatives, successful regional and world conferences have focused attention more sharply on the need to ensure the involvement of entire financial systems, including central banks and development banks, in providing credit for small farmers, fishermen, etc., and in mobilizing rural savings. Training in credit and banking procedures has been carried out for a number of individual countries and sub-regional groups. The efforts of the regions are coordinated through four Regional Agricultural Credit Associations, for whose creation FAO took the initiative. Similarly, FAO has launched a Scheme for Agricultural Credit Development (SACRED) which channels financial and technical assistance between donors and recipient members of the Scheme. Assistance is also provided to developing countries in setting up crop and livestock insurance systems.

From the establishment of the Agriculture Services Division in June 1968 until December of that year, A. D. Faunce (Australia) served as its Acting Director. The following have since provided leadership of the Division:

Joint FAO/IAEA Division of Isotope and Radiation Applications of Atomic Energy for Food and Agricultural Development

In November 1955, the Eighth Session of the FAO Conference approved the initiation of work on the application of atomic energy in agriculture, and in February 1956 a specialist took up a post in the Agricultural Institutions and Services Branch of what was then the Agriculture Division to serve as the Organization's focal point for this work. A separate Atomic Energy Branch was established in the Agriculture Division in September 1957. When the Technical Department was formed in January 1959, this Branch was assigned to the Office of the Assistant Director-General. Dr. R. A. Silow (United Kingdom) served as the first specialist in this field, and subsequently as the Chief of the Atomic Energy Branch.

In October 1964 a Joint FAO/IAEA Division of Atomic Energy in Food and Agriculture was formed in Vienna, merging the staff and programmes of the FAO Atomic Energy Branch and those of the IAEA Unit of Agriculture. From the FAO side, the Joint Division has constituted part of the Technical Department, and later of the Agriculture Department, while on the IAEA side it forms part of the Department of Research and Isotopes.

The Joint Division has six subject-matter sections, dealing respectively with soil fertility, irrigation and crop production; plant breeding and genetics; animal production and health;insect and pest control; chemical residues and pollution; and food preservation. Work on the applications of atomic energy in these areas involves coordination and support of research, technical assistance, training, and dissemination of information.

Over 250 research institutions and experiment stations in Member Countries are currently cooperating in some 25 coordinated research programmes, in each of which atomic energy techniques are used in attempts to solve problems of economic significance. Some 100 technical assistance projects are being conducted in over 40 developing countries, providing training, expertise and equipment. In addition to fellowship training, three or four international training courses are arranged annually. Two symposia and two seminars are held annually as a means of exchanging information, and publications are prepared and issued.

Some indication of the benefits being derived from the activities carried out or sponsored by the Joint Division may be obtained from the following examples:

• in one Member Country it has been estimated that the adoption by farmers of more efficient fertilizer placement, made possible by research on the efficient nitrogen fertilization of maize, has led to economic benefits of $36 million annually;

• in Hungary, Nucleoryza, a new rice variety obtained by mutation breeding, was grown on 33.2% of the country's rice area in 1978, increasing average yields by 30.6%;

• in India, an improved pearl millet male sterile line hybrid, created by mutation, showed a high degree of resistance to downy mildew. It is estimated that the increased yield from new resistant hybrids may eventually reach more than three million tonnes annually;

• a study of parasitic infections of lambs in Kashmir, India, revealed that up to 70% became infected from lungworm Dictyocaulus filaria, and that this parasite and the pneumonia it precipitated were the major constraints on sheep production. Large-scale field trials, based on earlier work in the United Kingdom and Yugoslavia, having shown that radiation-attenuated vaccine is highly effective, about 50,000 lambs are currently being vaccinated every year in Kashmir, mortality has decreased dramatically, lambing percentages and weight gains have increased, and the incidence of D. filaria has fallen below 5%;

• over 15 years of research have been devoted to the sterile-insect technique with fruit flies, lepidoptera that attack fruit crops, and tsetse flies. Mass rearing of the Mediterranean fruit fly has now reached the stage of pratical production of several hundred million flies per week for use in field campaigns. Dependence on animal hosts for rearing tsetse flies has been eliminated by using feeding techniques through membranes, thus making control campaigns practicable. Two such campaigns are currently testing the practical applicability of the sterile-insect technique, one on the tsetse fly in Nigeria, and one on the Mediterranean fruit fly to counter the threat of its establishment in Mexico;

• in a study in one Member Country of the efficiency and fate of Dieldrin applications for tsetse fly control, it was discovered that only some 40% was deposited on trees as intended, the remainder being lost and becoming an environmental threat. As a result, the spraying routine was changed, and more efficient applications were achieved;

• work on food irradiation has contributed to the development of this technique, which is now being applied on a commercial scale to potatoes in Japan and to certain fishery products and species in the Netherlands. More countries are expected to adopt it, several food and multipurpose plants being under construction. The process is also applied for producing pathogen-free laboratory animal feeds and for the sterilization of several foods to provide a safe diet for immunologically incompetent patients. The 1980 meeting of the Joint FAO/IAEA/WHO Expert Committee on the Wholesomeness of Irradiated Food concluded that no toxicological hazard is caused by irradiation up to a dose of 10 kilogray(1 megarad) for the preservation and prevention of post-harvest losses of any food product, and hence food treated in this way no longer needs to be tested for toxicity. The FAO/WHO Codex Alimentarius Commission will consider these conclusions for incorporation in its Recommended International General Standard for Irradiated Foods.

While work along all these lines is continuing, increased emphasis is being given to projects in which atomic energy techniques can be used as tools to help maximize biological nitrogen fixation in field crops, to promote the more efficient use of fertilizers in multiple cropping, and to find better ways of utilizing cereal straws and other agro-industrial by-products treated and supplemented with non-protein nitrogen compounds.

The agreement between FAO and IAEA concerning the Joint Division provides that FAO will designate its Director. Since it was formed in October 1964, the Director has been Dr. M. Fried (United States).

Research Development Centre

The Research Development Centre has been located in the Office of the Assistant Director-General, Agriculture Department, since January 1978. Prior to that time, activities relating to research were dispersed throughout the Organization.

Although research was dealt with by the early FAO missions, and arose in connection with various subject matters included in the Agriculture Division's programme of work, the first specific attention to agricultural research as a separate issue came after the transfer of Headquarters to Rome in 1951. Following a recommendation of the European Committee on Agriculture in 1950, a meeting on the organization of agricultural research in Europe was held in London in October 1951, and the information assembled in that meeting was published in Agricultural Development Paper No. 29, The Organization of Agricultural Research in Europe. After a follow-up meeting held in Rome in September 1952 to explore the possibility of establishing a uniform system of recording information regarding current research projects, and of facilitating the exchange of information, the European Committee on Agriculture established a Sub-Committee on Agricultural Research.

A start was made along similar lines in Latin America when a meeting on the organization of agricultural research in Mexico and Central America was held jointly with the Inter-American Institute of Agricultural Sciences in Turrialba, Costa Rica, in December 1955. Leadership in the organization of this and the European meetings was provided by the Deputy Director of what was then the Agriculture Division.

A further meeting, on the organization and administration of agricultural research in the Near East, was held in Tel Amara, Lebanon, in 1961.

An officer of the Agricultural Institutions and Services Branch of the Agriculture Division devoted part of his time to agricultural research matters from 1951 to 1958, and this arrangement continued in 1959 and 1960, after the Branch was transferred to the Rural Institutions and Services Division. In June 1962 a full-time officer to deal with the organization and administration of agricultural research was appointed to the Division; in January 1973 this post was transferred to the Research Centre in the Development Department, created in August 1972. The new Centre, which included the Secretariat of the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), was divided in March 1976 into two units, a Research Development Centre and a unit containing the TAC Secretariat. In January 1978, both of these were transferred to the Office of the Assistant Director-General, Agriculture Department.

In the early years, very little attention was given in the field programme to the organization and administration of agricultural research as such. Up to 1959 only four experts had carried out assignments. However, between 1962 and 1965 activities in this area expanded considerably, several regional projects and more than 20 national projects being established, and an equally large expansion in projects took place during the period 1966–70. Panels of experts on the organization and administration of agricultural research were convened in Rome in 1965 and 1969, the Current Agricultural Research Information System(CARIS) was launched on an experimental basis, and a new approach to inter-country cooperation, based on agro-eco-climatic analogues, was launched in the Sudanian and Guinean zones of Africa.

Between 1971 and 1975, a substantial array of activities was initiated, supported partly by CGIAR, but also including a number of national and regional projects for the strengthening of agricultural research systems financed from other sources. During 1976 and 1977, the Research Development Centre concentrated mainly on backstopping national research programmes and projects, and on preparations for FAO's participation in the UN Conference on Science and Technology for Development (UNCSTD).

Following its transfer to the Agriculture Department in January 1978, the Research Development Centre's work was oriented primarily toward the strengthening of national research capabilities, encouraging liaison between research and extension, backstopping UNDP-and TCP-financed FAO projects relating to research, and completing the final preparations for FAO's participation in UNCSTD, which was held in Vienna in August 1979.

The following officers have had responsibility for directing the work of the Centre:

Agricultural Operations Division

Although located administratively in the Agriculture Department, this Division also services the Economic and Social Policy Department, the Division Director reporting to the Assistant Directors-General of both Departments. When it was established in March 1974, the Operations Services then existing in the various divisions of the two Departments were abolished, most of their staffs being transferred to the new Division. In preparation for the establishment of the Division, a Director had been appointed in January 1974.

The Agricultural Operations Division is responsible for the management and administration of field programme projects financed from extra-budgetary sources such as UNDP, and from Trust Funds supplied by bilateral donors, recipient countries and others. It is also responsible for the operation of all projects under the Post-Harvest Food Losses Programme, and for certain projects under the Technical Cooperation Programme (TCP) financed from the Regular Budget.

The specialized areas covered by the projects operated by the Division include animal production and health; plant production and protection; land and water resources, development and conservation; agricultural engineering; food technology and processing and other agro-industries; farm management and production economics; credit, marketing and farm supply organization; environmental problems; extension, education, training and research; cooperative and other rural people's organizations; home economics and related social programmes; population; employment; agrarian reform; organization, administration and policy for agricultural and rural development; agricultural planning; agricultural statistics; food and nutrition; and agricultural commodities. Specifically excluded from its responsibilities are forestry and fishery projects and a number of other selected programmes such as some short-term training courses and seminars, the Fertilizer Programme, the work of the Locust Control and Emergency Operations Group, and the Regional Dairy Training Centres.

The Agricultural Operations Division has four regional Services, respectively covering Africa; Asia and the Pacific; Europe, North Africa and the Near East; and Latin America. They provide continuous support for field staff and coordinate Headquarters inputs for field projects, from recruitment, purchasing, etc., to technical support and follow-up action. Each Service contains country project officers responsible for servicing projects in one or more countries in its region.

The Division also contains a Management Support Service which, with delegated authority from central services, provides it with administrative support and servicing for its field projects, including personnel, budget and finance, contracts and equipment functions. A Fellowship Group, located administratively in this Division, provides fellowship services for the whole of FAO. In addition, an Operations Information and Analysis Unit in the Office of the Director is responsible for analyzing data on the Division's workload and performance and for providing information to help it to maintain the correct emphasis with regard to overall management of the field programme; it undertakes special investigations of the Division's performance and assists in the discharge of reporting responsibilities to Governing Bodies and donors.Since January 1980, a Reports Unit, transferred from the Development Department, has also been attached to the Office of the Director. Like the Fellowships Group, it services the whole of FAO, assisting the technical services in incorporating reporting requirements and plans into project documents, in briefing field staff, in following up agreed reporting schedules and in reviewing and clearing formal reports. The Reports Unit is responsible for the editing, processing and despatch to governments of terminal and technical reports and acts as focal point on all policy and procedural matters concerning FAO's field project reporting system.

The scope of the Division's project-operating responsibilities is reflected in the fact that it deals with about 60% of FAO's total field programme, to an amount in terms of dollar value (estimated on the basis of 1980 project expenditures) of $112 million for UNDP-financed projects, $42 million for Trust-Fund-financed projects (including associate experts) and $12 million for projects under the Technical Cooperation Programme and the Post-Harvest Food Losses Programme. 700 large-scale projects (over $150,000 each) and 340 small-scale projects are currently being implemented in about 130 countries, served in any one year by approximately 1,500 field project officers, 620 consultants and 230 associate experts.

The following officers have served as Director of the Agricultural Operations Division: