VOA慢速英语2011--'Green Super Rice' About Two Years Away

This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.

这里是美国之音慢速英语农业报道。

Scientists have worked for twelve years to develop what they call Green Super Rice. They say several varieties should be available to farmers about two years from now in parts of Asia and Africa.

科学家们已经花费了十二年时间来研制他们所谓的绿色超级稻（Green Super Rice）。他们表示，数个品种可能在2年内提供给亚洲和非洲部分地区的农民。

The "green" in Green Super Rice means environmentally friendly. Researchers say it will produce at least as much grain as other rice plants but with fewer inputs 1. "Super" means the rice is designed to better resist droughts, floods, salty water, insects and disease.

绿色超级稻中的“绿色”指的是环保。研究人员表示，绿色超级稻产量至少和其他品种相当，但投入却更少。“超级”指的是这种水稻可以更好的抵御干旱、洪水、咸水、虫害和其他疾病。

The developers of Green Super Rice did not use genetic 2 engineering. Instead, they mated hundreds of varieties of rice. That way they avoided the costs as well as the problems connected with getting permission to plant genetically 3 engineered crops.

绿色超级稻的研究人员并未采用转基因技术，而是对数百种水稻品种进行杂交。这样可以避免种植转基因作物的成本和许可问题。

The project involves the world's largest rice collection, the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines. It also involves the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. And it includes farmers in eight countries in Asia and eight in Africa.

参与该项目的包括位于菲律宾的全球最大的水稻研究机构“国际水稻研究所”，还包括中国农科院，以及亚洲8国和非洲8国的农民。

Modern rice plants produce two to three times more grain than was possible before the nineteen sixties. But they also require large amounts of water, chemical fertilizers and pesticides 4.

现代水稻产量是20世纪60年代以前的水稻产量的两到三倍，但它们也需要更多的水、化肥和农药。

In the sixties, the International Rice Research Institute developed "miracle rice" for Asia. Scientists created high-yielding crops that produced bigger harvests in what became known as the Green Revolution. It prevented widespread hunger.

60年代时，国际水稻研究所为亚洲研制了“神奇稻”。科学家研制出了这种产量更高的高产作物，这后来被称为“绿色革命”。这种高产作物避免了大范围饥荒。

But critics say modern rice plants require too much water and too much use of chemicals that can hurt the environment. And farmers may be too poor to buy chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

但批评人士说，现代水稻需要太多的水和太多会损害环境的化肥。而农民可能太穷无力购买化肥和农药。

Anna McClung heads a rice-breeding center for the United States Agriculture Department. She says combining many different genes 5 into one plant without genetic engineering requires a lot of plant breeding. Ms. McClung praises the researchers working on Green Super Rice.

安娜·麦克朗（Anna McClung）是美国农业部水稻育种中心的负责人。她说，在不使用基因技术的情况下，将许多不同的基因组合到同一植株需要进行多次育种。麦克朗赞扬了绿色超级稻的研究人员。

ANNA McCLUNG: "The magnitude of what they are doing is really quite unique and tremendous."

麦克朗：“他们所进行的研究工作独具重要性。”

Another rice researcher, Jan Leach 6 at Colorado State University, says scientists can find valuable qualities hidden in the rice genome. A genome contains all of the genetic information about an organism.

另一位来自科罗拉多州立大学的水稻研究人员简·利奇（Jan Leach）表示，科学家们可以在水稻基因组中发现一些极具价值的隐性性状。基因组包含了一种生物所有的基因信息。

JAN LEACH: "Many of the traits are present, but they are not turned on until you get them into the right genetic background, or sometimes in the right environment."

麦克朗：“许多性状是存在的，但是只有在适当的基因背景，或适当的环境下，这些性状才会显现出来。”

Researchers on the Green Super Rice project continue to combine desirable traits into new varieties to help farmers produce more with less.

绿超级稻项目的研究人员仍在继续将一些优良性状结合到新品种上，来帮助农民在投入更少的情况下获得更高的产量。