VOA慢速英语2009年-Agriculture Report - In Afghanistan, Prepa

This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.

Farmers in Afghanistan already struggle with the effects of drought and years of conflict. Now there is worry about a new threat headed in their direction in the wind -- a fungus¹ that destroys wheat crops. The disease is a form of stem rust² named for its discovery in Uganda ten years ago. Ug99 is now in one of Afghanistan's neighbors, Iran.
　
Wheat with stem rust

The disease kills wheat plants by robbing them of water and nutrients³. Stem rust produces reddish-brown spots on the stems of infected plants. The weakened stems break easily. The world's last major outbreak of stem rust took place in the nineteen fifties.

Agriculture -- excluding opium⁴ production -- represents about one-third of the Afghan economy. But agriculture employs eighty percent of the country's workers. And almost all Afghan farmers grow wheat to feed their families or to sell. Afghanistan has a population estimated at almost thirty-four million people.

Mahmoud Solh directs the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas, or ICARDA, in Aleppo, Syria. He says it took a few years for Ug99 to show its destructive power. Then, in Kenya, it destroyed anywhere from twenty to eighty percent of wheat crops.

And before long, he says, winds carried the disease from Kenya to Ethiopia. Ug99 has also affected⁵ Sudan and more recently has moved into Asia, spreading to Yemen and Iran.

Mahmoud Solh says the disease now threatens Afghanistan and South Asia. But he also calls it a global threat to food security. Most of the commercial varieties of wheat are at risk from Ug99, he says. These include varieties grown in the United States, Canada and Europe.

The expert urges Afghan farmers to tell agriculture officials immediately if they suspect stem rust in their fields. He says the fields will be treated to kill the fungus and to stop it from spreading. Farmers will get new seeds that resist Ug99.

Researchers have developed these seeds for the conditions in Afghanistan. Organizations of village farmers are working to expand the supplies of the improved seeds. They are receiving guidance from ICARDA and money from international groups.

The goal is to replace at least ten percent of Afghanistan's wheat fields with the new seeds each year. The effort will begin with areas along the border with Iran.

And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson with Steve Baragona. I'm Faith Lapidus.

1 fungus   

n.真菌，真菌类植物

参考例句：

• Mushrooms are a type of fungus.蘑菇是一种真菌。
• This fungus can just be detected by the unaided eye.这种真菌只用肉眼就能检查出。

2 rust   

n.锈；v.生锈；(脑子)衰退

参考例句：

• She scraped the rust off the kitchen knife.她擦掉了菜刀上的锈。
• The rain will rust the iron roof.雨水会使铁皮屋顶生锈。

3 nutrients   

n.（食品或化学品）营养物，营养品( nutrient的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a lack of essential nutrients 基本营养的缺乏
• Nutrients are absorbed into the bloodstream. 营养素被吸收进血液。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 opium   

n.鸦片；adj.鸦片的

参考例句：

• That man gave her a dose of opium.那男人给了她一剂鸦片。
• Opium is classed under the head of narcotic.鸦片是归入麻醉剂一类的东西。

5 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。