Plant Resources of Tropical Africa

PROTA publications distributed by CTA

CTA supports publications, especially relating to agricultural and rural development issues in the ACP countries. CTA distributes publications to subscribers of their credit-point system. Subscribers receive a fixed number of credit-points annually that they can spent on publications of their choice out of the approximately 600 titles from the CTA Catalogue.

Since 2004, CTA buys PROTA publications and these can be found in the CTA Catalogue. CTA also contributes to the cost of translation of PROTA publications into French.

Although none of the PROTA books are in the CTA Top-10. They are fairly close and there is a steady demand for most titles; only the demand for the Handbook on “Dyes and tannins” is somehow disappointing. CTA classifies the intended target of the PROTA Handbooks as “Advanced level (e.g. researchers)” and in that category the books are “best-sellers”. PROTA Handbooks are expensive, they cost relatively large numbers of credit points, but still the demand is fairly good.

Of the book “Promising African plants”, published early in 2010, about 450 copies (French and English together) had been distributed by september 2010 and as such it ranked 45th on the CTA sales list.

The PROTA Handbook “Medicinal Plants 1” was an instant succes. It was published late in 2008 and CTA distributed 955 copies in 2009 alone. CTA attributes this success to the small number of titles in their Catalogue on the subject, while interest in the matter is huge.

As more titles become available and the handbooks become known to an increasing audience, demand is rising. Apparently a “series-effect” becomes noticeable, and individuals and organisations who have received 1 book will order the other books in the same series to have a complete set. In the first half of 2010, CTA distributed some 850 copies of PROTA Handbooks (not including “Promising African plants” and “Updated list of species”).

The distribution of publications by CTA in tropical Africa is somehow unbalanced as the number of subscribers differs between countries. As a result the PROTA Handbooks are unevenly spread over the continent as well. The Table below demonstrates this clearly. For the English version 3 countries absorb over 70% and for the French version 3 countries absorb over 50% and 7 countries are good for 90% resp. 74% of total numbers distributed.

For the English version the numbers 1 & 2 are not surprising as these are huge countries with a large population. More surprising is that countries like Zambia and Zimbabwe do not figure more prominently.
In the small countries Benin and Togo relatively large numbers of the French version have been distributed. Cameroon figures in the top-7 for both language versions. Countries Côte d’Ivoire, DR Congo, Congo and Madagascar are each good for ca 3% of total numbers distributed.
Sahelian countries like Mauritania (1 French) and Sudan (3 English) are almost invisible in the distribution statistics.

CTA and PROTA both have problems with distribution of publications in Africa. The biggest problem appears to be that mail does not reach the addressee. A second problem is that people change residence or postal address which results in mail being returned to sender.

CTA wants to make a number of changes in the near future. With regard to PROTA publications they want to make things less complicated by removing the publications without CD from the catalogue. Increasing the number of subscribers is a goal for the coming years. In 2011 it will become possible to subscribe and to order on-line. Another challenge is to incite subscribers to use their credit points as only 30% of them use their points.

CTA can become an even more important distributor than it already is. Increase in the number of subscribers and a better coverage of the continent will no doubt boost numbers of Handbooks to find their way to content readers and users.