Food security Information system

Food security is an important part for any government policy. Especially it is true for transient economies where economic and social changes may endanger food security and the security of a state as well.

It is very important to define indicators of food security. Their inclusion in a computer based system will make possible to carry out preventive measures, prognostics and, in case of crisis to better use available resources.

The development of Food Security Observatory was started by Armenian Government and European commission decision. For one of Marzes of Armenia the project was financed by GTZ (Germany) under a commission of Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) of Armenia.

Marz departments of MoA are connected with communication lines with MoA and the government ensuring data transfer from marzes to the center and vice versa.

Hardware/software and database of the system

• Client/server technology is used
• Data base is MS ACCESS DB
• Minimal hardware/software needed:
• PC Pentium 200 and higher
• Windows 95 / 98 NT 4.0 (Service Pack 5)
• 16 Mb RAM for the Client, 32/64 Mb RAM for Server
• 2.1 GB for installation of Software
• CD-ROM for installation of software

Main information of the system

The main complexity of Food Security Information System (FSIS) lays in great number of indicators (more than 120) defined by FAO. Many of these indicators are not collected regularly, they do not have enough credibility and others are not an object of collection and analyses altogether.

As many of indicators are possessed by different state agencies, this causes additional difficulties in their collection and analyses.

For different indicators data transfer is carried out in different way depending on existing situation (paper form, magnetic carrier, communication lines) and data format even within the same state agency is not standardized.

Adding to FSIS analytical and global evaluation functions, it is possible to have a National Food Security Observatory.

Taking into consideration the complexity of the task, the system is developed and implemented for 30 indicators in one marz, which makes possible evaluation of effectiveness and operational characteristics of the system. Adding new indicators from FAO list or extension of the system to other marzes is more quantitative than a qualitative problem.

In the system there exist:

• Metabase for all indicators
• Database of chosen indicators
• Application software for the system
• LAN for one marz and data flow according to the specifications.

All indicators have passports which regulate data delivery, forms and a user matrix which defines the scope of information supplies and users.