VOA标准英语2014--报告称,非洲对农业研发力度不足
时间:2018-12-08 作者:英语课 分类:VOA标准英语2014年(十一月)
Report: Double African Agriculture R&D
Sub-Saharan Africa’s long-term food security faces a number of threats. A new report recommends speeding up agricultural productivity, but says a doubling of investment in research and development would be needed. The findings were released at the Forum 1 for Agricultural Research conference in Johannesburg (11/26-28).
The report is called Taking Stock of National Agricultural R&D Capacity in Africa South of the Sahara. It lists high population growth, deteriorating 2 soil conditions, climate change and high prices as risk factors to food security.
At the 2009 L’Aquila G8 Summit, leaders pledged their support for food security amid a global crisis that saw high prices and less access to food in many poor countries. In a joint 3 statement, they said, “There is an urgent need for decisive action to free humankind from hunger and poverty. Food security, nutrition and sustainable agriculture must remain a priority issue on the political agenda.”
Gert-Jan Stads is one of the authors of the new study and senior program manager with IFPRI, the International Food Policy Research Institute. He said since L’Aquila, investment in agricultural has improved.
“Investments have definitely increased since then and there’s been increased donor 4 interest in agricultural research, but also, and more importantly, increased government interest -- African governments themselves – in increasing investments. Since the turn of the Millennium 5, agricultural research investments actually increased by nearly 50-percent across Africa.”
But that investment, he said, has been uneven 6.
“If you actually look at the breakdown 7 by country you see that that growth is driven by just a handful of larger countries and that many of the smaller countries are actually lagging behind – reporting no growth whatsoever 8 or in some cases even negative growth,” he said.
Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya are responsible for most of the growth in agricultural research in Africa.
Stads says smaller countries that lag behind may have weaker economies and are not able to make the big investments that are needed.
“Having said that, it’s not like that every single small country is lagging behind. There are also examples of small countries where governments do recognize the importance of agricultural research. But generally speaking we do find that the larger countries have reported larger growth and are really investing more than some of the smaller countries. And the problem is particularly severe in Francophone West Africa where we found that many countries are really decreasing their research investments,” he said.
The donor investment surge that began in 2009 has waned 9 somewhat as countries recover from the global financial crisis. The IFPRI official also said donor funds that were given could have been better spent by some African countries.
Stads said, “Areas that definitely need improvement are the actual cost of R&D programs. What we see in a lot of countries is that governments spent a lot purely 10 on salaries of agricultural researchers, but not a lot on any of the required infrastructure 11 upgrades or the actual research programs. In many countries more than 80-percent of total government funding is actually going towards staff salaries leaving hardly anything for actual research programs themselves.”
But despite much of the money going towards salaries, the paychecks are small. So countries may not attract the best agricultural workers – or lose them to countries or institutions that pay well.
“That’s a very, very big reason for brain drain in African agricultural R&D; and that’s definitely an issue that needs to be resolved by policymakers in those countries,” he said.
Another key finding in the report is that “women scientists remain grossly underrepresented in agricultural research and development.”
Stads said, “The majority of farmers in Africa are actually women. And female scientists are in a unique position to respond to the specific challenges of these female farmers. If you have a whole group of male scientists responding to the needs of female farmers, there are very often communication issues or cultural issues. Female farmers tend to trust female scientists more to explain their problems to – especially in certain countries that are very male dominated.”
The report adds that “donor dependency and funding volatility 12 remain critical in many countries.” It says that may lead to only short-term goals being set that “are not necessarily aligned 13 with national or regional priorities.” Stads says, “Addressing these R&D challenges will be critical to enhancing future agricultural productivity.”
The report was produced by IFPRI’s Agricultural Science and Technology Indicators 14 program. It’s part of the Science Agenda for Agriculture in Africa that was launched at the Johannesburg conference.
- They're holding a forum on new ways of teaching history.他们正在举行历史教学讨论会。
- The organisation would provide a forum where problems could be discussed.这个组织将提供一个可以讨论问题的平台。
- The weather conditions are deteriorating. 天气变得越来越糟。
- I was well aware of the bad morale and the deteriorating factories. 我很清楚,大家情绪低落,各个工厂越搞越坏。
- I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤,肩膀脫臼了。
- We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。
- In these cases,the recipient usually takes care of the donor afterwards.在这类情况下,接受捐献者以后通常会照顾捐赠者。
- The Doctor transplanted the donor's heart to Mike's chest cavity.医生将捐赠者的心脏移植进麦克的胸腔。
- The whole world was counting down to the new millennium.全世界都在倒计时迎接新千年的到来。
- We waited as the clock ticked away the last few seconds of the old millennium.我们静候着时钟滴答走过千年的最后几秒钟。
- The sidewalk is very uneven—be careful where you walk.这人行道凹凸不平—走路时请小心。
- The country was noted for its uneven distribution of land resources.这个国家以土地资源分布不均匀出名。
- She suffered a nervous breakdown.她患神经衰弱。
- The plane had a breakdown in the air,but it was fortunately removed by the ace pilot.飞机在空中发生了故障,但幸运的是被王牌驾驶员排除了。
- There's no reason whatsoever to turn down this suggestion.没有任何理由拒绝这个建议。
- All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you,do ye even so to them.你想别人对你怎样,你就怎样对人。
- However,my enthusiasm waned.The time I spent at exercises gradually diminished. 然而,我的热情减退了。我在做操上花的时间逐渐减少了。 来自《用法词典》
- The bicycle craze has waned. 自行车热已冷下去了。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
- I helped him purely and simply out of friendship.我帮他纯粹是出于友情。
- This disproves the theory that children are purely imitative.这证明认为儿童只会单纯地模仿的理论是站不住脚的。
- We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
- We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设,发展各类群众文化。
- That was one reason why volatility was so low last year.这也是去年波动性如此低的原因之一。
- Yet because volatility remained low for so long,disaster myopia prevailed.然而,由于相当长的时间里波动性小,灾难短视就获胜了。
- The economic indicators are better than expected. 经济指标比预期的好。
- It is still difficult to develop indicators for many concepts used in social science. 为社会科学领域的许多概念确立一个指标仍然很难。