Mandates and Reports

The birth, development and progress of the FAO Organic Agriculture Programme, guided by 190 member countries since 1999, have been implemented through the following mandates and mechanisms:

The evolution of the Organic Agriculture Programme and Action Taken by FAO is being reported upon directly to the Director-General (see report).
In January 1999, a document on Organic Agriculture was presented to the 15th Session of the Committee on Agriculture (see COAG/99/9). In the COAG report to the 116th of the FAO Council, it was requested that a cross-sectoral programme on organic agriculture be established and housed in the Sustainable Development Department (CL 116/9 para.60).
On 20 November 1999, DG bulletin 99/31 established the Inter-Departmental Working Group on Organic Agriculture.
In 2002, organic agriculture was identified as a Priority Area for Interdisciplinary Action (PAIA/ORGA) with objectives and outputs defined in the Medium Term Objectives of 2002-07, 2004-09 and 2006-11. Central funding was received for catalytic activities in organic agriculture during the 2002-03, 2004-05, 2006-07 and 2008-09 biennia.
Progress reports have been submitted to governing bodies, including different Sessions of the Committee on Agriculture (2001, 2003 and 2009) and the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (2002, 2004 and 2007).
Technical committees and governing bodies (i.e. CL 120/6, CGRFA-10/04, CL 128/REP/9 para. 12) include specific requests for more normative work on organic agriculture (e.g. statistics, assessments, methodologies) and noting the "importance of including organic agriculture as an element in national Programmes on Food security" (i.e. CFS/33/REP para. 33) and the need for the "public and private investments in agroecological research, at both national and international levels" (COAG/2009/REP para. 27)
Under the FAO Reform (implemented as of January 2007), the organic agriculture theme is listed under the "other important multidisciplinary areas" to be implemented through "joint actions related to multi-disciplinary themes which will keep their priority status".
In 2009, the Committee on Agriculture stressed the need to strengthen FAO's interdisciplinary work on organic agriculture (COAG/2009/REP para. 31).
In 2009, the Chair of the 36^th FAO Conference called for an elevated role of organic agriculture within FAO’s work (C 2009/PV)