时间:2018-12-16 作者:英语课 分类:VOA标准英语2012年(二月)


英语课

Report: Africa Agricultural Reforms Could Ensure Food Security


Experts say Africa needs agricultural market reforms if it’s going to overcome food shortages and high prices. A new report outlines what it calls high payoff, low-cost solutions.

The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, AGRA, and the International Livestock 1 Research Institute say there are “substantial inefficiencies” in trade, transportation, communication, credit and storage in Africa.

At the mercy of the gods

“Some of the problems are weather related. There is a major drought or a flood or locusts 2. It happened in West Africa. The farmers have no surplus to sell,” said Anne Mbaabu of Kenya, AGRA’s director for market access.

The report says few African farmers use irrigation systems.

“As long as they are dependent on the weather, rain-fed agriculture, then you are at the mercy of the gods,” she said.

It’s estimated seven out of 10 Africans make their living in farming.

“One year you might be having a bumper 3 crop and the market is not ready to take the surpluses. The next year you end up with an acute shortage,” said Mbaabu.

The report also says there’s no comprehensive regional trade policy. Mbaabu says one leader could threaten food security by taking unilateral action to withhold 4 his country’s food reserves.

“One government may wake up and say no food exports because we think we are going to have a deficit 5. That throws the whole region in kind of a spin. And the reason they’re doing this basically because they don’t have food information or evidence-based data to let them know what food is available in their country or not available,” she said.

High-payoff, low-cost

The report estimates the continent’s market for milk, meat, maize 6, rice, sorghum 7 and millet 8 is worth $150 billion a year. It says that “far exceeds” Africa’s market for internationally traded cash crops like coffee, tea and flowers.

Recommendations include so-called high payoff, low cost solutions. These include the use of mobile phones to provide farmers with the latest market prices or to receive the latest weather forecast.

Mbaabu said, “Very few countries are able to offer that because their weather stations are either dilapidated or very few.”

Phone messages could advise farmers on choosing the best crops and when to plant them.

Another recommendation to help ensure food security is the use of storage facilities and warehouses 9 to protect against spoilage 10, pests and plant diseases. It’s estimated between 25 and 50 percent of African farm crops rot in the field and that tens of millions of dollars’ worth of milk becomes spoiled.

If the recommendations are implemented 11?

“The benefits are enormous. It would be a food-secure continent. Every household would have enough to eat, better health. You have fewer deaths from malnutrition 12. You have fewer children going to bed hungry. On the other hand, farmers would be able to have some income from selling their surplus produce,” she said.

The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa says it has invested $30 million over the last four years to improve agricultural market opportunities.



1 livestock
n.家畜,牲畜
  • Both men and livestock are flourishing.人畜两旺。
  • The heavy rains and flooding killed scores of livestock.暴雨和大水淹死了许多牲口。
2 locusts
n.蝗虫( locust的名词复数 );贪吃的人;破坏者;槐树
  • a swarm of locusts 一大群蝗虫
  • In no time the locusts came down and started eating everything. 很快蝗虫就飞落下来开始吃东西,什么都吃。 来自《简明英汉词典》
3 bumper
n.(汽车上的)保险杠;adj.特大的,丰盛的
  • The painting represents the scene of a bumper harvest.这幅画描绘了丰收的景象。
  • This year we have a bumper harvest in grain.今年我们谷物丰收。
4 withhold
v.拒绝,不给;使停止,阻挡
  • It was unscrupulous of their lawyer to withhold evidence.他们的律师隐瞒证据是不道德的。
  • I couldn't withhold giving some loose to my indignation.我忍不住要发泄一点我的愤怒。
5 deficit
n.亏空,亏损;赤字,逆差
  • The directors have reported a deficit of 2.5 million dollars.董事们报告赤字为250万美元。
  • We have a great deficit this year.我们今年有很大亏损。
6 maize
n.玉米
  • There's a field planted with maize behind the house.房子后面有一块玉米地。
  • We can grow sorghum or maize on this plot.这块地可以种高粱或玉米。
7 sorghum
n.高粱属的植物,高粱糖浆,甜得发腻的东西
  • We can grow sorghum or maize on this plot.这块地可以种高粱或玉米。
  • They made sorghum into pig feed.他们把高粱做成了猪饲料。
8 millet
n.小米,谷子
  • Millet is cultivated in the middle or lower reaches of the Yellow River.在黄河中下游地区,人们种植谷子。
  • The high quality millet flour was obtained through wet milling.采用湿磨法获得了高品质的小米粉。
9 warehouses
仓库,货栈( warehouse的名词复数 )
  • The whisky was taken to bonded warehouses at Port Dundee. 威士忌酒已送到邓迪港的保稅仓库。
  • Row upon row of newly built warehouses line the waterfront. 江岸新建的仓库鳞次栉比。
10 spoilage
n.(食物等)变质,损坏
  • He was determined to track down the cause of food spoilage.他决心查出食品腐烂的原因。
  • The principal methods of avoiding spoilage are the use of pure yeast strains as starters.防止啤酒变坏的主要方法是用纯酵母菌株发酵。
11 implemented
v.实现( implement的过去式和过去分词 );执行;贯彻;使生效
  • This agreement, if not implemented, is a mere scrap of paper. 这个协定如不执行只不过是一纸空文。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
  • The economy is in danger of collapse unless far-reaching reforms are implemented. 如果不实施影响深远的改革,经济就面临崩溃的危险。 来自辞典例句
12 malnutrition
n.营养不良
  • In Africa, there are a lot of children suffering from severe malnutrition.在非洲有大批严重营养不良的孩子。
  • It is a classic case of malnutrition. 这是营养不良的典型病例。
学英语单词
aeronautical navigational electronics
air craft
Aisimi
alpha-beta transition
annunziato
armyworms
as crazy as a loon
bag dust filter
beam bearing
Benangin
bf, bf.
black-cab
blockwood pavement
boisterously
boss-fern
Bukhoro
capacity for public rights
carthon
chlorophyll corpuscle
cladophoran
colloverthwart
computer interconnects
conversation control
Creusot-Loire Uddelholm process
CRSV
current operating performance income statement
derivational compound
diagnostically
digital-advertising
Eaton Park
ejector lift
excursion rate
fail-soft function
fan-guide
ferrobustamite
first-out
glass object
grapeseed oil
hemqtarrhachis
hickenlooper
high-speed sequential processing
Higi
hop on the bandwagon
hydrokonite (hydroconite)
ilmens
inter-organizational
iron halogenide
Isobutylisovalerate
jamt
jen
Jenolan
job dyeing
keystone-type piston ring
kneeboarding
La Cavada
load time his tory
martinhal
measure twice, cut once
mechanical face seals
method analysis
microsoft commercial internet system
midmarket
murska
nanoprocessor
nonreduced
obtuse-angle
optimal growth path
Percy cautery
profit allowance
put it this way
raw casting
readable news
reversal colo(u)r film
rotary slasher
rural erosion rate
scaraboids
Scots Gaelic
seam fat
seepage apron
seiters
self-propelled floating crane
separetionist
soapworts
splicing
splicing vise
spring hoop
submerged tooth
suburban areas
syllogisms
temporomaxillary
topographical parallel
townlets
Tracheophytas
trailing cavity
travelling roller pin
unextraneous
unit mass resolution
unyielding foundation
utility-company
Varaire
wakeys-wakeys
yoruba dance (w. africa)