WILBERFORCE, Ohio — Educators are bringing Africa to Ohio. They’re trying to plant seeds native to Africa at Central State University, an HBCU.

Nellie Rowland graduated college three years ago, but she never left. She stayed in the area to teach and is an educator at Central State University’s extension office in Wilberforce. She’ll be teaching a summer program on plants, but not just any kind of plant, native African heritage plants.

“The environment in Africa is totally different than the state of Ohio. So are those plants able to adapt and grow in an Ohio climate? After collecting the seeds is a second generation even better,” said Rowland.

She said they plan on collecting data on how the plants react and produce.

“We’re going to look at viability of the plant. Do they germinate? Once they germinate, how do they grow? And then after that, if they yield, how much are they producing in the vegetables that they are growing?” said Rowland.

She teamed up with fellow extension associate Clare Thorn to get the plant seeds here. Thorn started the program last summer and helped get a grant to run it for the next two years.

“This, to me, is helping to make a connection with our students here on campus and our local community. Since we are an HBCU, I felt it was the appropriate type of crop to grow,” said Thorn.

She said they hope to make enough not just to study the plants but to get them into farmers’ markets.

“There are so many cultures and particularly immigrants and refugees, who don’t have their home foods. They can’t locate the grains that they’re accustomed to eating. So the goal, too, is to have our farmers to be able to take those crops to market so that it could be available to anyone,” said Thorn.

If everything goes as planned, she said they hope to get more students growing their own plants.

Educators are planning to plant the first seed on April 1.