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to any Government needing assistance in organizing or improving national statistical services. New methods of sampling, for example, which have recently been developed, are known and used in few countries. [Art. I, XI, XII.] 30. All other relevant sources of information should be used, including the results of special inquiries and surveys, or the work of special committees set up by the Organization ; reports and other material obtained through regional and liaison offices of the Organization ; information furnished by national nutrition organizations, by any agencies that may be set up under the auspices of the Organization, and by research institutes and scientific societies ; and reports and other material obtained through reciprocal arrangements with other international authorities. [Art. XII, XIV.] (b) Range of Subject-matter 31. The range of subject-matter covered by the research, fact-finding, and interpretative work of the Organization will include all the branches of the natural and social sciences relating to food, nutrition, agriculture, forestry, and fisheries. It may be useful to list some of the particularly relevant subjects as a means of sketching in broad outline the scope of the activities that would contribute to the main purpose of furthering improvements in production, distribution, consumption, and nutrition. The importance of the interrelationships of the different fields and of collaboration with other institutions should be emphasized at all times. (i) Natural sciences—including human nutrition in relation to health, animal nutrition, biochemistry, plant and animal genetics, plant and animal physiology and pathology, soil chemistry and physics, entomology, mycology, bacteriology, and meteorology. (ii) Technology—including management, selection, and breeding in relation to crops and live-stock; animal feeding and care; soil fertilization, drainage, irrigation, and other conservation and development measures; protection of crops and live-stock from natural enemies ; agricultural engineering ; processing, storing, and transporting food and other agricultural products. (iii) Economic organization of agriculture —including the production and successive stages in the distribution, marketing, and consumption of food and other agricultural products ; the co-ordinated expansion of consumption and production ; the efficiency of factors of production in terms of physical output and cost per unit; methods of reducing costs of production and distribution ; scale of enterprise ; economical use of labour and machinery ; provision and use of credit; demand and prices ; gross and net income in relation to output and consumption ; trends and fluctuations in production, prices, incomes, and other factors bearing 011 the relation of agriculture to the general economy ; domestic and international trade and other aspects of national and international economy, with special reference to their bearing on food and agricultural problems. (iv) Other social factors—including food habits and customs, the distribution of population between agriculture and industry, population movements, land tenure, consumer and producer co-operatives, and rural organization generally; rural schools and other rural institutions; rural roads, communications, and rural electrification; rural housing, sanitation, and amenities. (v) Public measures of regulation and assistance : In modern States public authorities legislate so extensively in regard to standards and practices, and provide aids of so many kinds in connection with the matters included in each of the preceding subparagraphs, that investigations in these fields by the Organization are too broad to be covered by any list. They would relate, among other matters, to special planning techniques, legislation affecting the eradication of deficiency diseases, measures for improving the diets of vulnerable groups, regulations for control of plant and animal diseases and pests, grading and standards of market and nutritive quality, subsidies for production or consumption, commercial policies, and measures for increasing consumption by the distribution on special terms of accumulated stocks. 2. Dissemination of Knowledge 32. The need to make useful facts about nutrition and the consumption and production of foods far more widely known is so great and so essential to progress that promoting the dissemination of knowledge is to be given equal emphasis with research. The Organization should employ various means to this end as the need arises. The development of a programme of publication will be important from the beginning. Promoting education in the fields relating to the Organization's work will be another important activity. [Art. /.] (a) Publications 33. A considerable variety of publications will probably be needed, some for official or professional use, some designed to meet the needs of particular groups of producers and consumers and those of the general public. High standards should be the aim in every case. Duplication of work adequately done by others should be avoided, and the possibility of co-operative ventures should be fully explored ; the Organization might do much by this means to promote world-wide co-ordination of efforts—for example, in the preparation and publication of scientific abstracts. [Art. XII.] 34. It is not possible at this time to forecast exactly what publications the Organization will find it useful to issue. Among them might be a periodic summary based on the reports by member nations ; a periodic world survey of the state of nutrition, consumption, and production together with an analysis of the determining factors, with special attention to interrelated developments and the policies of different countries ; a periodic digest or review of legislation and administrative rulings relating to food, agriculture, forestry, and fisheries; abstracts, reviews, and bibliographies of scientific literature ; regular bulletins dealing with crops, production, trade, stocks, prices, and other data and their interpretation; and a journal or journals containing articles for the general reader on problems and progress in the fields covered by the Organization. It will clearly be essential to publish an authoritative and eolrfprehensiVe yearbook of international statistics. [Art. /, XI

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