Group plans to ship agricultural books to Africa

Books For Africa (BFA) has begun a new initiative to collect and ship much-needed agricultural libraries to schools, universities and government agencies in Africa.

The project is modeled after BFA’s Jack Mason Law & Democracy Initiative in which law books and law libraries from Thomson Reuters are sent to law schools in Africa.

“There is a great demand from our friends in Africa for agricultural and natural resource books of all kinds,” said Patrick Plonski, executive director of BFA. “They need the educational support to develop their agriculture sector. Minnesota has a wealth of agricultural resources and expertise so it’s another way we can help.”

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Office (FAO), 73 percent of the rural population of Africa consists of smallholder farmers, and in Sub-Sahara African alone, agriculture accounts for 21 percent of the entire continent’s GDP.

This agricultural, natural resources and vocational library is aimed at providing high-school level agricultural education information and resources to rural populations in Africa, and includes books from sources as wide-ranging as the FAO and major universities to small publishers and equipment manufacturers. Read more>>