[00:00.00]如果您也喜欢 恒星英语学习网 www.hxen.com 请与您的朋友分享...This is the VOA Special English [00:02.89]Agriculture Report. [00:05.23]Pastoralism remains [00:07.57]a way of life in East Africa. [00:10.06]Herders travel from place [00:13.00]to place in the dry, [00:14.79]dusty deserts to find food [00:18.12]and water for their animals. [00:19.86]But some people think [00:22.20]this movement of livestock [00:24.24]is bad for the environment. [00:26.68]They say pastoralists [00:28.77]should settle on farms [00:30.56]and grow their own food, [00:32.86]especially in times of shortages. [00:36.25]Not everyone agrees. [00:38.49]Experts recently met in Nairobi [00:41.77]to discuss what to do [00:44.36]about food shortages [00:45.90]caused by drought. [00:47.60]They say pastoralists make [00:50.59]the best use of resources. [00:53.04]David Mwangi at the Kenya [00:56.52]Agricultural Research Institute [00:58.76]says grasslands have time to recover. [01:02.54]DAVID MWANGI: "Pastoralists [01:04.13]would move in search for pasture [01:07.12]and also water. [01:08.36]Because what then would happen, [01:09.92]if you are in a small area, [01:11.66]the moment the water is exhausted, [01:13.70]you would have to move [01:14.74]to the next area [01:15.64]where there is water. [01:16.49]It gives the area you have left [01:18.68]time to regenerate. [01:19.57]And by the time you come back [01:22.11]through the loop, this area [01:23.50]now has pasture to graze." [01:24.61]Mr. Mwangi says the land [01:27.59]used for animals is often [01:30.17]not good enough for farming, [01:32.12]especially during droughts. [01:34.81]He and other experts say [01:37.95]pastoralism makes the most sense [01:41.23]for dry and semi-dry lands. [01:44.81]Jeff Hill directs policy [01:48.00]for the Bureau of Food Aid [01:50.39]at the United States Agency [01:52.53]for International Development. [01:54.72]He says arid and semi-arid lands [01:59.54]represent about eighty percent [02:02.78]of the Horn of Africa. [02:04.77]Livestock-based economies [02:08.10]in these areas provide up to [02:10.69]forty percent of agricultural [02:13.73]production in Ethiopia [02:15.42]and fifty percent in Kenya. [02:18.60]And in Somalia, Mr. Hill says, [02:22.78]the percentage is even higher. [02:25.67]JEFF HILL: "In Somalia, [02:27.01]livestock systems fuel the economy." [02:29.35]An estimated ninety percent [02:31.99]of the meat eaten in East Africa [02:34.68]comes from pastoralist herds. [02:37.81]Mr. Hill says Kenya [02:40.50]and other governments have only [02:43.29]recently recognized the value of arid [02:47.02]and semi-arid lands. [02:48.86]These lands have often been excluded [02:52.35]from government planning [02:54.39]and road building. [02:55.78]Herders can face limited access [02:59.37]to grazing and watering areas. [03:02.56]Researcher David Mwangi says [03:06.00]communities need to be creative [03:08.49]with the resources they have. [03:10.78]He says a good example is a project [03:15.06]in Kenya in which grass is grown [03:18.04]in the desert to feed livestock. [03:21.18]DAVID MWANGI: "What would happen [03:22.17]if we developed a system [03:23.32]where we grow fodder and pasture [03:25.76]along the river and the animals [03:27.90]are taken off from the range [03:29.09]and finished nearer to the market? [03:31.18]What we need is a system, [03:32.63]and that is what has been [03:34.52]really lacking." [03:36.06]He also says more efforts need [03:38.60]to be put into raising camels. [03:40.79]Camels are often the only animals [03:44.27]that produce milk during a drought. [03:47.41]And that's the VOA Special English [03:50.89]Agriculture Report, [03:52.53]written by Jerilyn Watson [03:55.02]with Cathy Majtenyi. [03:57.66]I'm Jim Tedder.如果您也喜欢 恒星英语学习网 www.hxen.com 请与您的朋友分享...