2007年VOA标准英语-African Farmers Worry About Self Reliance

By Jordan Davis
Dakar
21 January 2007

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People march during the opening of the World Social Forum in Nairobi, 20 Jan 2007

At this week's World Social Forum in Nairobi, Kenya fair-trade campaigners are putting a priority on restarting the so-called Doha round of trade talks. Those negotiations² focus on agricultural subsidies³ in Europe and the United States, which activists⁴ say hurt small farmers in developing countries. Jordan Davis reports from Dakar that farmers in one nearby region say self-reliance may no longer be enough to save them economically.

For farmers in the Niayes region, just east of the sprawling⁵ Dakar suburbs, tending to crops means endless trips to the well.

Farmers fill two buckets at a time. Then they attach a bucket to each end of a long wooden stick they balance on their shoulders to carry back to the fields.

The leader of this farming community, Mamadou Diop, says a water pump would be too expensive, at least the equivalent of $500, maybe a $1,000. 

Tractors are also out of the question. Diop says farmers in Niayes might make around a $150 in a good month.

It is not much money, but many of these farmers might not be tilling the soil at all if they had not organized over a decade ago.

To save their wind-swept fields of okra and cabbage a decade ago, Mamadou Diop says farmers formed a credit union.

Diop says it used to be that farmers would not have enough money because the very people that lent them the money to plant their crops would then force them to sell their harvest at low prices.

That changed when farmers began lending to one another through the credit union. That allowed them to sell crops to the highest bidder⁶, not to their financiers.

 

Matar Ndoye, who runs the credit union for the farmers' federation⁷,says these days, most of the farmers in the area own their own land, thanks to the help of a micro-finance loan. And once a loan is paid off, a family will have more money in their pocket at the end of each month. 

But Mamadou Diop, the head of the farmers federation, says not all of their problems have been solved.

Growers in Niayes now have to compete against imported crops, he says.

Market sellers in Dakar these days often have a choice between vegetables from Niayes, or competitively priced products from the European Union, where farmers are heavily subsidized.

Senegal's government has placed a priority on agriculture to help develop its economy.

But Mamadou Diop says he worries how long the small family farmers in the Niayes can hold out against cheap, imported agricultural products.

1 forum   

n.论坛，讨论会

参考例句：

• They're holding a forum on new ways of teaching history.他们正在举行历史教学讨论会。
• The organisation would provide a forum where problems could be discussed.这个组织将提供一个可以讨论问题的平台。

2 negotiations   

协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过

参考例句：

• negotiations for a durable peace 为持久和平而进行的谈判
• Negotiations have failed to establish any middle ground. 谈判未能达成任何妥协。

3 subsidies   

n.补贴，津贴，补助金( subsidy的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• European agriculture ministers failed to break the deadlock over farm subsidies. 欧洲各国农业部长在农业补贴问题上未能打破僵局。
• Agricultural subsidies absorb about half the EU's income. 农业补贴占去了欧盟收入的大约一半。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 activists   

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》

5 sprawling   

adj.蔓生的，不规则地伸展的v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的现在分词 )；蔓延；杂乱无序地拓展；四肢伸展坐着（或躺着）

参考例句：

• He was sprawling in an armchair in front of the TV. 他伸开手脚坐在电视机前的一张扶手椅上。
• a modern sprawling town 一座杂乱无序拓展的现代城镇

6 bidder   

n.(拍卖时的)出价人，报价人，投标人

参考例句：

• TV franchises will be auctioned to the highest bidder.电视特许经营权将拍卖给出价最高的投标人。
• The bidder withdrew his bid after submission of his bid.投标者在投标之后撤销了投标书。

7 federation   

n.同盟，联邦，联合，联盟，联合会

参考例句：

• It is a federation of 10 regional unions.它是由十个地方工会结合成的联合会。
• Mr.Putin was inaugurated as the President of the Russian Federation.普京正式就任俄罗斯联邦总统。