CABI News

28 September 2015 – CABI and Book Aid International are collaborating to bring specialist scientific books on agriculture and tropical health to students at universities, medical schools and colleges in sub-Saharan Africa. The books have been carefully selected for institutions like the Mzuzu Agriculture Vocation College in Malawi and Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology in Kenya to help students and staff with their studies and teaching.

Highly specialist books on subjects like climate change adaptation at the farm level are in high demand in sub-Saharan Africa, where agriculture is a major employer, as well as an important field of academic study. CABI is printing extra copies of certain new titles, selected by Book Aid International, allowing the charity to purchase them at cost price to help deliver relevant academic books to the research institutions that need them.

CABI has given Book Aid International the opportunity to request additional copies of new specialist publications, which traditionally have limited print runs. This differs from the charity’s usual model, whereby books are donated by publishers. Requesting an additional print run of these in-demand titles means that Book Aid International is able to meet the specific needs of its partners in this area. Book Aid International is using funding from the Beit Trust and Book-Power, donated specifically for buying books that are valuable to its partners, but which are otherwise difficult to obtain through publisher donations.

The titles provided under this new collaboration are:

• Land-Use Change Impacts on Soil Processes, Brearley and Thomas
• Potato and Sweet Potato in Africa, Low et al.
• Tuberculosis, Leprosy and Mycobacterial Diseases of Man and Animals: The Many Hosts of Mycobacteria, Mukundan et al.

• Climate Change Challenges and Adaptations at Farm Level, Signh et al.

The books will be sent to places like the Bindura University of Science Education in Zimbabwe, where flash floods have destroyed millions of pounds worth of property including thousands of books, and the recently created medical library at the Gulu Regional Referral Hospital in northern Uganda. This collaboration brings CABI and Book Aid International together in their missions to share knowledge, promote lifelong learning and improve livelihoods.

Andrea Powell, CABI’s CIO, says: “CABI is proud of its long publishing history in the life sciences but as a development focused organization we’re aware it’s often difficult to ensure that relevant information gets into the hands of those who need it most in developing countries. Through this innovative partnership with Book Aid International, we’re doing just that: ensuring that students and researchers in Africa can access the latest scientific information from CABI.”

Alison Hubert, Director of Book Aid International, says: “Books of this type and quality on agriculture and tropical diseases are hugely valuable to our partners, especially to universities, but they’re often scarce in Africa and many of our partners have no budget to purchase books. This is a brilliant opportunity for us to secure these high quality monographs for the people we work with. We’re grateful to CABI, the Beit Trust and Book-Power for helping us fill this specialist need.”

For all our latest news, click here.