George Gundu Shibanda

Agricultural Information in Africa. Edited by L.O. Aina, A.M. Kanika, and J.B. Ojiambo. Ibadan, Nigeria: Third World Information Services Limited, 1995. xii, 221 p. ISBN 9–783–28360–X.

Despite established and elaborate African governments’ agricultural research and extension systems, coupled with international community support, Africa has yet to witness a green revolution comparable to that in Asia and the Western world. Agricultural information can certainly aid agricultural research and development. Thus, the greater vision of this book is to put forth agricultural information as a means of modernising and accelerating agricultural production. The book has come out at a time when questions are still being posed as to why the performance of major African economies continues to deteriorate despite the huge funding and support enjoyed by the agriculture sector. The book demonstrates that without an agricultural information support component, the war on malnutrition, rampant unemployment, export earnings, and agro–industrial support will consistently be lost on African soil.

The book contains 15 chapters, including a bibliography on African agriculture and a separate list of its contributors. The contributors have a background and interest in agricultural information by virtue of their training, work experience, or both. Their selection and contributions are reflective of the African continent, though with an Anglophone limitation. The discussions cited in these 15 chapters can be grouped as follows:

1. Overview and general assessment of agricultural information generation, need, and use across Africa appear in chapters 1 and 2.
2. The development of agricultural information within regions and individual countries of Africa is illustrated in chapters 3 to 8.
3. A discussion of existing agricultural databases relevant to Africa appears in chapters 9 and 10.
4. The training and education of agricultural information workers, including a possible curriculum, is deliberated in chapter 11.
5. Two agricultural libraries receiving support and funding from international institutions are typified as examples of role models for Africa, and appear in chapters 12 to 13.
6. The role played by the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) in agricultural information provision in Africa is discussed in chapter 14.
7. A bibliography of agricultural information in Africa for the period up to 1994 is presented in chapter 15.

Clearly noted are the flows, failures, and recommendations in the generation, organisation, dissemination, and utilisation of agricultural information in Africa. The book highlights lack of access to relevant agricultural information. Factors contributing to this problem are identified, and include manpower inadequacies, scarcity (or unavailability) of documented literature, illiteracy, inadequate funding, and lack of an environment conducive to resource sharing.

High in these discussions are agricultural libraries and documentation centres under the purview of the ministries of agriculture extension systems and services. However, identification of the agricultural information centres, per se, and their articulated roles in agricultural information re–packaging and dissemination to farmers is not made explicit. On the same note, the actual roles the agricultural libraries need to play in ensuring accessibility of information to farmers is not clearly explicated in this book.

Deliberations on the agricultural databases are exhaustive. These databases are arguably the basis for future networking in Africa, provided the factors that have hindered resource sharing in the past will ease up. Bridging the gap between agricultural information and its communication to consumers is a major concern of those interested in Africa. Without agricultural information, the anticipated agricultural development is void, yet energies need be put into improving agricultural information systems by:

1. Maintaining and improving library and documentation services;
2. Ensuring that such services are geared toward agricultural development relevant to farmers on whom that development depends;
3. Improving the information flow, and ensuring that information professionals are expert communicators — not merely collectors and keepers of agricultural information.

This book is one of few ever published on this subject. It is suggested that it be read in conjunction with related works, including:

1. Anne Marieke Kinara, Information Communication in Kenya Agriculture, Basic Problems and Possible Solutions. (Nairobi: African Book Services, 1984. xi, 121 p.);
2. George Gundu Shibanda, “Agricultural Information Networking in Africa: Status and Prospects,” Third World Libraries 6–1 (Fall 1995): 24–28, and at http://www.worlib.org/vol06no1/shibanda_v06n1.shtml.

This book is valuable to all those interested in agricultural information services, whether practitioners or students of agricultural librarianship.

 About the Reviewer

George Gundu Shibanda is Head of Library Services, Chepkoilel Campus, Moi University, Kenya.

© 1996 George Gundu Shibanda.

Citation

Shibanda, George Gundu, “Review of Agricultural Information in Africa edited by L.O. Aina, A.M. Kanika, and J.B. Ojiambo,” Third World Libraries, Volume 6, Number 2 (Spring 1996).