VOA慢速英语2019--黏虫危害中国的农作物

Army Worms Hurt Crops in China

Yan Wenliu stops to talk as he prepares to leave his sugarcane field in Southwest China. He is concerned about the powerful new pest that has attacked his crops this year.

“I don’t know what it is,” says Yan, a 36-year-old farmer from Yunnan province. “But it is bigger than other ones. I have never seen this worm before.”

The creature Yan cannot name is the fall armyworm. It is the larva, or not yet fully¹ developed form, of the fall armyworm moth².

Known locally as the “heart-devouring worm,” the pest has spread more than 3,000 kilometers north since arriving from Myanmar seven months ago. It has reached a total of 21 provinces and regions in China, and now threatens its grain production.

In Yunnan alone, where the pest struck first in China, it had affected⁴ some 86,000 hectares of farmland by the middle of June. The fall armyworm has damaged crops such as corn, sugarcane, sorghum⁵ and ginger⁶.

First found in the Americas, the armyworm has spread through Africa and Asia since 2016. As a moth, the insect can fly up to 100 kilometers a night.

This creates a big problem in China, where about 90% of crop production comes from small farms of less than a hectare. Many owners lack basic knowledge and resources to fight the pest.

The Chinese government warned earlier this year that the armyworm was a severe threat to the country’s food security. In May, it launched a campaign to “snatch grain from the insect’s mouth.”

The government has given millions of yuan to affected areas and sent experts to educate farmers.

To those in Yunnan, the solution to the worm problem seemed clear: pesticide⁷ products. “You have to keep spraying chemicals. If you don’t kill the worm, you will end up penniless,” says farmer Yan Wenliu.

But many farmers cannot pay for the chemical pesticides⁸ in the amounts required.

In addition, many farmers do not know they must use different pesticides at different crop growth stages. They must also rotate pesticides to prevent resistance to them. All of this means that the money is often wasted.

Yu Xianger, a farmer in Nuodong, put pesticides on her small corn field without results. She is thinking about finding work in the city.

“The worms have devastated⁹ my corn crops this year. And there’s nothing much else I can do,” she said.

Experts say the fight against armyworms is difficult. Skilled at hiding, the pest is hard to find and likes to come out at night, when it eats plants and flies to nearby fields.

Yao works as a sales manager for pesticide supplier Jingbo Agrochemicals Technology Company Limited in Yunnan Province. Yao told the Reuters news agency: “Local farmers here didn’t use much pesticide before and wouldn’t buy chemicals until they saw the worms, meaning they might have missed the best time to kill them.”

While the pests are a problem in China’s south, the chances of a good harvest in the north are “much better,” says Hu Gao, a professor at Nanjing Agricultural University.

Prevention measures have given the north, which produces more than 70% of China’s corn, more time to prepare for an invasion.

The worm has yet to reach the northeastern provinces, including Heilongjiang, the top grower of the grain.

Some experts believe the northeast’s usually lower temperatures will protect it from a full attack.

Back in Yunnan, however, farmer Yan Hannei is thinking about growing other plants like vegetables.

“I am going to lose so much money this year,” he says. “What can you do? I can only stop growing corn and grow something else.”

I'm John Russell.

And I’m Jill Robbins.

Words in This Story

pest – n. an insect, animal or other organism that attacks crops

devour³ - v. to quickly eat all of (something) especially in a way that shows that you are very hungry

resource – n. a supply of money, materials and other objects that can be used to make something operate more effectively

snatch - v. to take (something) quickly or eagerly

penniless - adj. having no money : very poor

stage – n. a period or step in a process or period of development

rotate - v. to regularly change the place or position of things or people so that each takes the place of another

manager – n. a person responsible for controlling or supervising a business or other organization

1 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

2 moth   

n.蛾，蛀虫

参考例句：

• A moth was fluttering round the lamp.有一只蛾子扑打着翅膀绕着灯飞。
• The sweater is moth-eaten.毛衣让蛀虫咬坏了。

3 devour   

v.吞没；贪婪地注视或谛听，贪读；使着迷

参考例句：

• Larger fish devour the smaller ones.大鱼吃小鱼。
• Beauty is but a flower which wrinkle will devour.美只不过是一朵，终会被皱纹所吞噬。

4 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。

5 sorghum   

n.高粱属的植物，高粱糖浆，甜得发腻的东西

参考例句：

• 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。

6 ginger   

n.姜，精力，淡赤黄色；adj.淡赤黄色的；vt.使活泼，使有生气

参考例句：

• There is no ginger in the young man.这个年轻人没有精神。
• Ginger shall be hot in the mouth.生姜吃到嘴里总是辣的。

7 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。

8 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》

9 devastated   

v.彻底破坏( devastate的过去式和过去分词)；摧毁；毁灭；在感情上（精神上、财务上等）压垮adj.毁坏的；极为震惊的

参考例句：

• The bomb devastated much of the old part of the city. 这颗炸弹炸毁了旧城的一大片地方。
• His family is absolutely devastated. 他的一家感到极为震惊。