Books For Africa Partners with IFAD, Elsevier to Build Specialty Agriculture Libraries

In Sub-Saharan African alone, agriculture accounts for 21 percent of the continent’s GDP, with three-quarters of rural Africans operating smallholdings according to the FAO. While Books For Africa is the largest shipper of donated books to Africa, we do not often receive donated books on these specialized subjects. This is why BFA created the Agricultural Education, Natural Resources and Vocational Skills library, a core library that caters to this need.

In 2021 and 2022, Books For Africa sent 10 of these specialty collections to the continent, to help farmers and agriculture students in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi.

Books For Africa curates the titles itself, in part through high-level partnerships with organizations such as Elsevier and the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development, both of which donated titles to the 2023 Edition of the Agricultural Libraries. The titles focus both on practical needs such as livestock handling, water storage and welding for farm equipment, as well as studies on Africa’s unique and diverse agricultural environments and food markets. You can see a full title list for the 2023 Agriculture Libraries here and donate to the initiative here.