VOA标准英语2010年-Report Calls for Radical Changes on Ev

The report is funded by many international organizations and development agencies.  The lead author of the report, Uma Lele, is a former World Bank senior adviser¹.  She calls the meeting a great opportunity for change and says not since the early 1970s has the need for agricultural reforms been so great.

“Until 2007, there were declining real commodity prices, production was increasing and there was generally a sense that we were accomplishing something.  I think the food price increases of 2007 and the financial crisis of 2008 really jogged people into action…that there had been a great sense of complacency about investment in agricultural research and development,” she says.

An opportunity for chang

The report, Transforming Agricultural Research for Development, outlines the problems facing the expected 1,000 participants at the Montpellier meeting.

Former World Bank Senior Adviser Uma Lele

“Lots of poor people.  Nearly a billion people are food insecure today.  The Millennium² Development Goals are not likely to be reached by 2015.  So I think the world communities and those who are concerned about poverty are saying that this is a wonderful time again to try and do some which is similar to what happened when the CGIAR was formed,” she says.

Forty years ago, widespread fears of famine and hunger in poor countries led to the creation of CGIAR, the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research.  It’s an international partnership³ whose mission is to “achieve sustainable food security and reduce poverty in developing countries through scientific research in agriculture, forestry⁴, fisheries, policy, and environment.”

CGIAR recently implemented⁶ some reforms it says will revitalize it to meet new challenges.

Nevertheless, Lele says new thinking and “radical changes” are needed in 2010.

“I think there is a general consensus⁷ in the scientific community that they have done good research, but they really have not had poverty reduction directly on their minds,” she says.

She says new technologies “need to be mobilized to benefit the poor.”

Also, G8 countries are no longer the only major players.  Emerging economies, such as India and China, now have greater roles in development, contributing to scientific and technological⁸ advances.  And with more players, there’s more competition for resources, land and bio-fuels.

Lele says, “So the idea is to bring them all together to see whether collectively they can address these problems better than just working in a very fragmented environment.”

Talk is cheap

Lele estimates it will cost about $80 billion dollars a year to implement⁵ all the reforms needed to ensure food security for a rapidly growing world population.  That’s double what’s been spent before.  But the former World Bank senior adviser warns it’s not enough to make funding pledges.

“G8 countries have pledged $20 billion over the next three years, for instance.  You know, in the past, these pledges haven’t materialized.  So I think one of the first things that should happen is the pledges should materialize.  That’s the least that can happen,” she says.

And she says national governments must not only do a better job of investing in domestic agriculture, they must also increase those investments.

“Climate change and commodity prices and all these things now require that we spend a lot more resources to address problems, which are going to be much more complicated in the future than they have been in the past,” she says.

The new report says global population will reach nine billion by 2050, up from the current six billion.  Most of the increase is expected in developing countries.

The first Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development runs from March 28th through the 31st.
 

1 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。

2 millennium   

n.一千年，千禧年；太平盛世

参考例句：

• The whole world was counting down to the new millennium.全世界都在倒计时迎接新千年的到来。
• We waited as the clock ticked away the last few seconds of the old millennium.我们静候着时钟滴答走过千年的最后几秒钟。

3 partnership   

n.合作关系，伙伴关系

参考例句：

• The company has gone into partnership with Swiss Bank Corporation.这家公司已经和瑞士银行公司建立合作关系。
• Martin has taken him into general partnership in his company.马丁已让他成为公司的普通合伙人。

4 forestry   

n.森林学；林业

参考例句：

• At present, the Chinese forestry is being at a significant transforming period. 当前, 我国的林业正处于一个重大的转折时期。
• Anhua is one of the key forestry counties in Hunan province. 安化县是湖南省重点林区县之一。

5 implement   

n.(pl.)工具，器具；vt.实行，实施，执行

参考例句：

• Don't undertake a project unless you can implement it.不要承担一项计划，除非你能完成这项计划。
• The best implement for digging a garden is a spade.在花园里挖土的最好工具是铁锹。

6 implemented   

v.实现( implement的过去式和过去分词 )；执行；贯彻；使生效

参考例句：

• 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

7 consensus   

n.(意见等的)一致，一致同意，共识

参考例句：

• Can we reach a consensus on this issue?我们能在这个问题上取得一致意见吗？
• What is the consensus of opinion at the afternoon meeting?下午会议上一致的意见是什么？

8 technological   

adj.技术的；工艺的

参考例句：

• A successful company must keep up with the pace of technological change.一家成功的公司必须得跟上技术变革的步伐。
• Today,the pace of life is increasing with technological advancements.当今， 随着科技进步，生活节奏不断增快。