The Agriculture Electronic Library, the first electronic library in Afghanistan, was created as a joint project between Atifa Rawan, a librarian at the University of Arizona Library, and Barbara Hutchinson and Carla Casler of the University of Arizona's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) Arid Lands Information Center in the Office of Arid Lands Studies. Funding came from the International Arid Lands Consortium’s Sustainable Development of Drylands in Asia & the Middle East Project.