AGRICULTURE REPORT - Pest Management

AGRICULTURE REPORT – October 29, 2002: Pest Management

By Gary Garriott

This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.

Since nineteen-forty-five, farmers have used pesticides², poisons made from
chemicals, to kill insects that damage crops. One serious problem with pesticide¹ use
is that people get sick. Every year about five-hundred-thousand people are poisoned
by pesticides. About ten-thousand people die.

Some scientists are working to develop other ways to keep insects and disease³
organisms⁴ from harming crops. One method is to choose plants that show a natural
resistance⁵ to certain insects. Then these plants are used to produce new plants. The
new plants will have more resistance than the parent plants. For example, corn or
maize⁶ plants grown to have more Vitamin A than normal plants can fight off insects that feed on their leaves.

However, if levels of Vitamin A get too high, humans and animals that eat the maize may get sick. So it is
important to study this kind of insect control very carefully.

Some plants produce natural poisons against insects. For example, potato plants produce poisons everywhere in
the plant, including sometimes in the potato itself. These poisons kill insects. But they can also kill people.
People should never eat potatoes that have turned green after being left in the sun.

Another method is to plant crops when the harmful insects are not present. In this way the plants grow before the
insect population gets too large to damage them. Grains such as wheat and barley⁷ are planted in this way to
protect them from an insect known as the Hessian fly.

Water also can be used to limit harmful insect populations. One method is to add a lot of water to alfalfa plants
growing in a field. Other smaller plants grow and limit insects like aphids. Limiting water in certain situations
can have the same effect.

Turning over the soil, called plowing⁸ or tilling, is a way to keep small organisms that cause disease from
attacking the plant. Like the other methods, this must be done with care. Plowing can cause soil to be blown away
by wind and water. The loss of soil from plowing has become a major environmental problem around the world.

You can get more information about pest management from the group, Volunteers in Technical Assistance⁹. You
can contact VITA through the Internet at its world wide web address w-w-w dot v-i-t-a dot o-r-g.(www.vita.org)

This Development Report was written by Gary Garriott.

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1 pesticide   

n.杀虫剂，农药

参考例句：

• The pesticide was spread over the vegetable plot.菜田里撒上了农药。
• This pesticide is diluted with water and applied directly to the fields.这种杀虫剂用水稀释后直接施用在田里。

2 pesticides   

n.杀虫剂( pesticide的名词复数 )；除害药物

参考例句：

• vegetables grown without the use of pesticides 未用杀虫剂种植的蔬菜
• There is a lot of concern over the amount of herbicides and pesticides used in farming. 人们对农业上灭草剂和杀虫剂的用量非常担忧。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 disease   

n.疾病，弊端

参考例句：

• The doctors are trying to stamp out the disease.医生正在尽力消灭这种疾病。
• He fought against the disease for a long time.他同疾病做了长时间的斗争。

4 organisms   

n.有机物( organism的名词复数 )；有机体；生物；有机体系

参考例句：

• The organisms can be divided into discrete categories. 有机体可分为许多互不相联的种类。
• The cell is the unit of which all living organisms are composed. 细胞是构成一切生物的单位。

5 resistance   

n.抵抗力，反抗，反抗行动；阻力，电阻；反对；adj.抵抗的

参考例句：

• Very little resistance was put up by the enemy.敌人没怎么进行抵抗。
• An aircraft has to overcome the resistance of the air.飞机须克服空气的阻力。

6 maize   

n.玉米

参考例句：

• 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 barley   

n.大麦，大麦粒

参考例句：

• They looked out across the fields of waving barley.他们朝田里望去,只见大麦随风摇摆。
• He cropped several acres with barley.他种了几英亩大麦。

8 plowing   

v.耕( plow的现在分词 )；犁耕；费力穿过

参考例句：

• "There are things more important now than plowing, Sugar. "如今有比耕种更重要的事情要做呀，宝贝儿。 来自飘（部分）
• Since his wife's death, he has been plowing a lonely furrow. 从他妻子死后，他一直过着孤独的生活。 来自辞典例句

9 assistance   

n.援助，帮助

参考例句：

• She called and called but no one came to her assistance.她叫了又叫，但没有人来帮。
• He will get the great possible assistance.他将获得尽可能大的帮助。