VOA常速英语2014--荷兰实验表明盐水种植农作物成为可能（在线收听）

Dutch Experiment Shows Farming With Salty Water Possible 荷兰实验表明盐水种植农作物成为可能

One of the many adverse effects of global climate change is the rise of sea levels, which scientists say can increase the salinity level of fresh water reserves. As saline water cannot be used for irrigation, farm fields close to the seashore are lost to agriculture. But a farm in Netherlands has managed to grow healthy and tasty vegetables in soil irrigated with salt water.

Salinization is reducing the world's irrigated lands by 1 to 2 percent annually, according to the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization.

联合国粮食和农业组织发布的数据表明盐渍化正以每年约1-2%的速度减少世界的灌溉土地。

But that doesn't faze Dutch farmer Marc Van Rijsselberghe, who has used saline water to kill some plants in order to identify which ones are able to thrive.

但这并阻碍荷兰农民马尔克·范·拉杰斯伯格使用盐水杀死一些植物以验证哪些能够在这种特殊环境中茁壮成长。

“We put a lot of plants in the field and then we put them in fresh water and in sea water and all varieties between it, and then we see which variety is surviving and which variety is dying.”

“我们种了很多种植物,然后我们将它们浸在淡水，海水及各种环境下,然后我们观察哪些品种存活及死亡。”

Working with scientists from the Free University of Amsterdam, Van Rijsselberghe and his team divided a farm into eight plots covered with a network of irrigation pipes.

通过与阿姆斯特丹自由大学的科学家们合作,范·拉杰斯伯格和他的团队将农场分成由覆盖整个灌溉管道网络组成的8个区域。

Separate pipes bring fresh water and sea water to a distribution center where a computer-controlled system mixes irrigation water with eight different degrees of salinity.

单独的管道将淡水和海水送到配送中心,该中心由计算机控制系统将灌溉用水与8种不同程度的盐度混合。

“And then computer says go and then it goes to the fields and dripping irrigation starts to work and we are going to kill plants. That's it.”

“这一刻起交由电脑安排，然后流进田地开始进行滴水灌溉后我们就会杀死植物。就是这样。”

Numerous sensors continuously control soil salinity and moisture. Van Rijsselberghe said they were able to harvest vegetables from most of the test plots. Although they were smaller than normal, he said they contain more sugar and salt, so they taste better.

大量的传感器不间断的控制土壤盐分和水分。范·拉杰斯伯格表示他们能够从大部分的测试区域中收获蔬菜。虽然个头比平常是小了点,但含有更多的糖和盐,所以味道尝起来更好。

“It's a miracle. It shouldn't be a carrot, it should be dying if we look at the data that are available in the world at the moment.”

“这是个奇迹。它不应该是一根胡萝卜,如果我们看着世界上的现有数据它本应该死掉的。”

The farm managed to grow carrots, cabbage, onions and beetroot, but potatoes proved to be the most tolerant to saline water. Van Rijsselberghe said four varieties of salt-tolerant potatoes recently were shipped to Pakistan where thousands of hectares of land damaged by salinization are being prepared for testing the Dutch potatoes.

这座农场已经成功种植出胡萝卜、卷心菜、洋葱及甜菜根,但土豆对于盐水最有耐药力。范·拉杰斯伯格表示4个品种的耐盐土豆最近会被运到巴基斯坦，那里数千公顷的被盐渍化土地正准备进行荷兰土豆种植的测试。