时间:2019-01-26 作者:英语课 分类:2006年VOA标准英语(九月)


英语课

By Michael Bowman
Washington
13 September 2006
 
Two private U.S. charitable foundations are joining forces to improve African agricultural production.  The initiative aims to combat both hunger and poverty on the continent.


 
Bill and Melinda Gates  (file photo)
  
Two of America's biggest philanthropic groups, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation, say they want to promote high-yield farming techniques in Africa, where food production has declined in recent years and tens of millions of people rely on small-scale subsistence farming to survive.


The founder 1 and former head of Microsoft Corporation, Bill Gates, outlined the program to reporters.


"I want to stress that this is a long-term effort, one that we hope will not only increase agricultural productivity, but also move millions of people out of extreme poverty and reduce hunger," he said.



A drying corn stalk in one of many farms in Adinefas in southern Eritrea, that have given a poor harvest (2004 file photo)   
  
"Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa", as the program is called, will focus on developing advanced seed varieties that generate higher-yielding crops, are pest-resistant and well-suited to varied 2 soil properties and rainfall patterns in Africa. The initiative will also train African crop scientists, work to overcome transportation and distribution challenges so that new seed varieties and fertilizer actually reach farmers, and promote a network of African agricultural suppliers.


The foundations have pledged an initial investment of $150 million to be spent over a five-year period.


Initial reaction to the initiative has been positive.


"It is better than trying to send food to feed people," said Rashid Nuri, an agra-business consultant 3 who spent five years in Nigeria and three years in Ghana.


Now based in Atlanta, Georgia, Nuri says the concepts and strategies promoted by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa are not new. In fact, they have been employed successfully in Europe, Asia and the Americas for several decades.


"Increased [agricultural] yields, increased tonnages are something that most governments have embraced," he added.  "Certainly the Chinese have, the Indians have, also in Europe and America. It is Africa that has not had the resources to participate at the same level of development, in the agricultural sector 4, as the rest of the world."


Nuri warns, however, that a sustained financial commitment over a long period of time will be required if the Gates and Rockefeller initiative is to succeed. He adds that increasing African crop yields is but one half of the battle to combat hunger and provide a financial boost to farmers. The other half of the battle, he says, is improving roads and transportation so that harvests can get to market.



n.创始者,缔造者
  • He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
  • According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说,罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。
adj.多样的,多变化的
  • The forms of art are many and varied.艺术的形式是多种多样的。
  • The hotel has a varied programme of nightly entertainment.宾馆有各种晚间娱乐活动。
n.顾问;会诊医师,专科医生
  • He is a consultant on law affairs to the mayor.他是市长的一个法律顾问。
  • Originally,Gar had agreed to come up as a consultant.原来,加尔只答应来充当我们的顾问。
n.部门,部分;防御地段,防区;扇形
  • The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
  • The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。
学英语单词
accurate filter
Aleppo oak
analog digital control system
auto-regressive model
Babel, Tower of
bacter(I)oid
banda islands
bearing torque resistance
Better ask twice than lose your way once.
Boiiinger Bodies
business like
buy low and sell high
Cardamine bulbosa
claim settlement
CODIC
commercial finance companies
complete elliptic integral of the first kind
condotels
corporealist
critical erosion slope length
Daimanji-san
delay fault
diffusion in grain
Emmersdorf
Energy Performance Certificate
ensigns
famous trade-mark
fixed public press service
fluidized gassification
for ligamentum teres notch
forward extrusion
genelle
genus sarcochiluss
geothelphusa eurysoma
glomeropheric
go to all lengths
Grauer Kopf
guillette
guitar-pops
Gök Irmak
homeopathia
hotch-potch
hoven
human hand
immunoactivities
indian club swinging
Joseph Rudyard Kipling
lateral posterior nucleus
latitude-time section
leisure-time activity
local transmission network
Manoni
maritime trade
mechanical equipment for building
microcomputer editor
Moldovei, Câmpia
monkey-houses
mossberg
mountjack
mutually perpendicular
nearvertical
negotiate into
non-instrumental
oedema rheumaticum
open circuit voltage (fuel cell module)
ossa mastoideum
oxalidaceous
paradisi
pillar of strength
pirameters
plant sandblast damage
procomp
ranckes
red metal
regniers
repetitive peak reverse current
return to document
sdes
shear-hulk
simple mobile manure crane
sliver protein
sodium free salt
special schools
spring busker sheller
spurious discharge
St-Mamet-la-Salvetat
star-wheel mechanism
steam flow
supplemental control
surrogates
take chances
terminal pillar
Tetraneura
thermal entropy
training shoes
tropical rain forests
truck agitator
uncinula verniciferae p.henn.
understanding economics
unexpedient
voltage regulating diagram
water stage measurement