Priority # 1 = Production!
Citation
CTA. 2003. Priority # 1 = Production!. Spore 103. CTA, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
Permanent link to cite or share this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10568/47865
External link to download this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10568/99607
Abstract/Description
Don t worry, the headline is not another exhortation from on high to produce more. It is your own wish. Production of livestock, crops and vegetables are the subjects which our subscribers most want to read about, according to an analysis of the...
Notes
Don t worry, the headline is not another exhortation from on high to produce more. It is your own wish. Production of livestock, crops and vegetables are the subjects which our subscribers most want to read about, according to an analysis of the distribution of 66,000 books ordered from CTA s Publications Distribution Service under the credit point scheme in 2002. Other top topics are information, training, marketing and organisation and management.
These preferences confirm the responses to the Uses of Spore survey in 2002 which showed that more than one in four respondents wanted more coverage of livestock issues, and one in five more coverage of information and communication. The list (see table) of the Top 20 most ordered publications of which five from ACP publishers includes eight titles related to livestock, from beekeeping to animal breeding manuals. Top of the list is the manual Poultry, of which 960 copies were ordered, followed by Where there is no vet.
Information and enterprise
Another six titles relate to information skills, ranging from the specifics of Strengthening biometry (statistical analysis) to the broad overview of the Information revolutions taking place at community and national level throughout ACP countries; this group includes The ABC of book publishing and the Development of training materials.
Of special note as the third most ordered book is the new guide to Setting up and running a small food business; its popularity has given new energy to the compilers of the series on food processing, of which this was the first to appear, in late 2001. Strong interest in sound agriculture practice is also clear: just creeping into the Top 20 is Producing food without pesticides, and the new survey of World markets for organic fruit and vegetables, published in mid-2002, soon caught the interest of many subscribers.
A similar picture exists in the parallel Top 20 French-language books, which is headed by L élevage de la volaille, the French edition of Poultry. There is a similar pattern of interests, but with some differences in titles: the popularity of a beekeeping book in English, for example, is matched by a book on duck rearing in French. Another common feature is the interest shown in series of publications.
So many interests
The Top 20 is, however, just the tip of a mass of titles for which there is a broad demand. If you ever wondered why the CTA Publications Catalogue is so thick, now you know. In all, orders were received for 650 of the approximately 680 titles on the CTA list, the difference due to some titles joining the list near the year s end, with the first orders coming in 2003. And, as in any shop , one or two items just did not get asked for. That idea of the shop holds true when it comes to special marketing efforts. When we draw attention in Spore to a new title, or to an old one whose sales are sagging, or do a special mailing to special interest groups you soon see the orders surge. But, once in the shop, people do like to have a good look around.
Orders for the 20 favourite titles account for a quarter of the 36,500 orders placed for English books, and a third of the 28,500 orders for French titles. Most other orders were for the range of Portuguese-language titles in stock.
Who wants to know?
Two-thirds of all the publications ordered are intended for people who manage services or an enterprise (such as suppliers, traders and processors) and for communicators (such as extension and field workers). About a fifth are the hands-on, how-to manuals used by producer groups and their individual members. The remainder are publications for researchers and policy-makers on technical, political and socio-economic issues. This picture is the same for both French- and English-language titles, and reflects the composition of our subscribers list. Incidentally, this aspect of meeting needs is reflected by the fact that of the Top 20 titles, 18 English and 19 French are CTA s own publications or, predominantly, co-publications with another publisher. These are titles for which CTA identified a clear need from its constituency, and the demand has proved the Centre right.
We shall not go into the detail of who is ordering which publications, because we all know that policy-makers keep chickens and farmers associations have an interest in following policy issues. If you re in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ethiopia or Nigeria, you ll be proud to know that your five countries often account for at least half of the orders for a title. There are, though, more than enough titles for every subscriber to get their fair share: in 2002, all subscribers together spent more than 1,090,000 credit points, but your kitty is not empty yet. Try to take a look at the latest Publica-tions Catalogue, on the CTA Website www.cta.int.
Top 20 books in English of 2002
1. Poultry. Tropical Agriculturalist series CTA number 244
2. Where there is no vet , CTA number 917
3. Setting up and running a small food business. Opportunities in Food Processing series , CTA number 1041
4. Information revolutions, CTA number 1037
5. Learn how to grow onions, garlic and leek, CTA number 1006
6. People s farming workbook, CTA number 939
7. Animal breeding. Tropical Agriculturalist series, CTA number 603
8. Simple construction surveying for rural applications. Agrodok series , CTA number 261
9. World markets for organic fruit and vegetables, CTA number 1055
10. Animal production in the tropics and subtropics, CTA number 392
11. Animal health vol 1 general principles, CTA number 711
12. Information support for agricultural policy formulation. Working Document series , CTA number 8004
13. Beekeeping in the tropics. Agrodok series, CTA number 745
14. Development of training materials in agriculture a course manual, CTA number 117
15. Learning together, CTA number 1045
16. Hohenheim,1996: strengthening biometry and statistics in agricultural research , CTA number 850
17. The ABC of book publishing, CTA number 961
18. Livestock production systems. Tropical Agriculturalist series, CTA number 714
19. Citrus nurseries and planting techniques, CTA number 928
20. Producing food without pesticides local solutions to crop pest control in West Africa , CTA number 927
Organizations Affiliated to the Authors
Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural CooperationCollections
- CTA Spore (English) [4419]