在线英语听力室

VOA慢速英语2013 African Women Farmers Working for Better Lives 非洲女性农民为更好的生活工作

时间:2014-01-08 13:58:33

搜索关注在线英语听力室公众号:tingroom,领取免费英语资料大礼包。

(单词翻译)

African Women Farmers Working for Better Lives 非洲女性农民为更好的生活工作

From VOA Learning English, welcome to As It Is.  I’m Steve Ember.

Farming in Africa is our subject today, as we explore issues faced by women farmers in Cameroon. And later, we hear about a program designed to protect crops from disease and pests in Uganda and other African countries.

We begin our program today by exploring farming in Africa.

We visit some African women who till the soil – and also work for progress toward better lives. The women face denial of land and hostile cultural traditions as well as the usual struggles with nature. 

[Cows]

Let’s look in on a farm in Cameroon that a man seized from his sister.

Experts estimate that women farmers produce about 90 percent of the food in Africa.  The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization says two-thirds of African women work in agriculture. 

Activists2 for these farmers met recently in Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon.  Their goal was to develop ways of making jobs in agriculture more profitable.

[Cows Mooing]

Adamu Maino is busy raising cows in North West Cameroon.  He takes care of the animals on a piece of family land he seized from his sister, Maimonatou Aisha.  By farming on this land, he was following cultural traditions.

But leaders of an African women farmers’ association went there to urge Maimonatou Aisha to continue her struggle to recover the land.

“Move on women, move on, women. These are the changing times.  Move a little closer when the change is coming.  Move on women.  Move on.”  

Activist1 Veronica Kini sings a song that calls women to “move on” in their search for progress.

 “You do not expect a woman who has been cultivating a piece of land for 30 years, and just because she is a woman, she has no right to own that piece of land.  They say she is a woman, she will be married to a different family, so she has no right to own the piece of land.”

Maimonatou Aisha is one of millions of African women farmers who struggle with problems like getting bank loans.

Simadana Elizabeth was born in Mali.  She says these problems are similar across the continent.

“Most of us do not own land.  When you go to financial institutions, the banks, when you want to access credits, they ask for land titles. And again you find that most women do not own the titles.  So it is a common challenge and we need to get a solution for it.”

Ms. Elizabeth says many women farmers still use old tools and farming methods.

“We have not mechanized the way we do our work, so you find that we use what is commonly known as hoes to do our work. We don’t have a voice, we never get time to come out with one voice and solve our personal problems.”

The Food and Agriculture Organization considers women farmers the pillar, or main support, of African agriculture.  In addition to providing most food grown in Africa, they must prepare food for their families.

Alice Kwanjani was born in Kenya.  She says many women there are powerless.

“Women are not expected to stand out in the presence of men, so we feel that they cannot express themselves properly. “

She says women are responsible for most of the activities in the home and even in some communities, like taking care of the children and the sick.  Women also take care of such events as funerals and wedding parties.

For three days in Cameroon, the women farmers’ groups examined the difficulties that they believe interfere3 with progress.

Among their concerns are longtime problems that governments do little to solve.  Veronica Kini says the reason is inertia4 -- a lack of movement. 

“We have been saying this over and over again.  Can you imagine a women of, let’s say 50 years of age, carrying a bag of around 50 kilograms on the head, crossing a bridge that is not well constructed…I think it is deplorable. We need tractors, we need harvesters.  They know what we need.” 

The women at the conference agreed to work to help other women gain a better understanding of their rights.  Elizabeth Atanganan is president of the farmers’ network for Central Africa.  She says this can happen through training.  She says the goal is to help women learn to start defending their interests.

Simadana Elizabeth also called for action.  She said the time to act is now. 

Next, we’ll hear about efforts to save plants from destruction. It’s As It Is from VOA Learning English. I’m Steve Ember.

A program to save crops from pests and disease…

Crop disease continues to be a problem for farmers everywhere. The non-profit Center for Agriculture and Biosciences International says pests and diseases destroy up to 40 percent of the food grown worldwide. The center, based in Britain, is trying to change that with a crop protection program. Avi Arditti tells us more.

The program is called Plantwise. In the past three years, Plantwise has trained almost 1,000 so-called plant doctors in 24 countries.

One of those countries is Uganda. Recently, plant doctor Daniel Lyazi set up a table under a small tent during market day in Mukono. The village is about 15 kilometers from Kampala, the capital. People brought samples of diseased plants to his clinic. One farmer brought cabbage covered in slime. Nothing can be done to save his cabbages this year. But Daniel Lyazi's advice may save the next season’s crop. 

“So he told me there’s a small caterpillar5 which eats [the cabbages] starting from the youngest leaf. He’s telling me that the whole garden has been attacked and affected6 by this caterpillar. I know that it’s a diamondback moth7.”

The farmer has been using an insecticide, but Mr. Lyazi says the chemical is the wrong one.

“So I’m recommending him to use another insecticide and I’m telling him in another planting season he should plant with onions. Onions can repel8 [the caterpillar] and he can get income.”

He advises the farmer to plant onions between the rows of cabbages as an additional measure of protection.

The clinic lasts about three hours. In that time Daniel Lyazi advises about 20 farmers. The clinic takes place twice a month. It started last year.

The Plantwise program says there are now about 90 of these clinics in Uganda. This year donors9 spent close to $300,000 training plant doctors and expanding the system in the country.   

Joseph Mulema coordinates10 the Plantwise program in Uganda and Zambia. He argues that plant clinics are a far more effective way to get advice to farmers than the traditional model. In the traditional model, agricultural extension workers visit farms.   

“Plant clinics can help so many farmers in a very short time. In fact, more farmers are seen in a plant clinic session, if good mobilization was done.”

Robert Karyeija is a crop protection officer for the government. He says training plant doctors has been very important. This is because even though there were thousands of agricultural extension workers, they just did not know enough.

“They would be general agriculturalists who knew agronomy11 but didn’t know much about pests and diseases.”

Since 2010, the Center for Agriculture and Biosciences International has set up Plantwise clinics in 12 African countries. I’m Avi Arditti.  


分享到:


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 activist gyAzO     
n.活动分子,积极分子
参考例句:
  • He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
  • He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。
2 activists 90fd83cc3f53a40df93866d9c91bcca4     
n.(政治活动的)积极分子,活动家( activist的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
  • Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》
3 interfere b5lx0     
v.(in)干涉,干预;(with)妨碍,打扰
参考例句:
  • If we interfere, it may do more harm than good.如果我们干预的话,可能弊多利少。
  • When others interfere in the affair,it always makes troubles. 别人一卷入这一事件,棘手的事情就来了。
4 inertia sbGzg     
adj.惰性,惯性,懒惰,迟钝
参考例句:
  • We had a feeling of inertia in the afternoon.下午我们感觉很懒。
  • Inertia carried the plane onto the ground.飞机靠惯性着陆。
5 caterpillar ir5zf     
n.毛虫,蝴蝶的幼虫
参考例句:
  • A butterfly is produced by metamorphosis from a caterpillar.蝴蝶是由毛虫脱胎变成的。
  • A caterpillar must pass through the cocoon stage to become a butterfly.毛毛虫必须经过茧的阶段才能变成蝴蝶。
6 affected TzUzg0     
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。
7 moth a10y1     
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。
8 repel 1BHzf     
v.击退,抵制,拒绝,排斥
参考例句:
  • A country must have the will to repel any invader.一个国家得有决心击退任何入侵者。
  • Particles with similar electric charges repel each other.电荷同性的分子互相排斥。
9 donors 89b49c2bd44d6d6906d17dca7315044b     
n.捐赠者( donor的名词复数 );献血者;捐血者;器官捐献者
参考例句:
  • Please email us to be removed from our active list of blood donors. 假如你想把自己的名字从献血联系人名单中删去,请给我们发电子邮件。
  • About half this amount comes from individual donors and bequests. 这笔钱大约有一半来自个人捐赠及遗赠。 来自《简明英汉词典》
10 coordinates 8387d77faaaa65484f5631d9f9d20bfc     
n.相配之衣物;坐标( coordinate的名词复数 );(颜色协调的)配套服装;[复数]女套服;同等重要的人(或物)v.使协调,使调和( coordinate的第三人称单数 );协调;协同;成为同等
参考例句:
  • The town coordinates on this map are 695037. 该镇在这幅地图上的坐标是695037。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, headed by the Emergency Relief Coordinator, coordinates all UN emergency relief. 联合国人道主义事务协调厅在紧急救济协调员领导下,负责协调联合国的所有紧急救济工作。 来自《简明英汉词典》
11 agronomy XflyJ     
n.农业经济学
参考例句:
  • The science of agronomy helps farmers obtain larger and better crops.农业经济学帮助农民获得更多更好的农作物。
  • Heavy agronomy clique and Si Mi order of believe in nature.重农学派和斯密都信奉自然秩序。

本文本内容来源于互联网抓取和网友提交,仅供参考,部分栏目没有内容,如果您有更合适的内容,欢迎 点击提交 分享给大家。