Agriculture Report - Experts Defend Way of Life for Herders in East Africa
农业报道 - 专家为东非牧民辩护
This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.
这里是美国之音慢速英语农业报道。
Pastoralism remains a way of life in East Africa. Herders travel from place to place in the dry, dusty deserts to find food and water for their animals. But some people think this movement of livestock is bad for the environment. They say pastoralists should settle on farms and grow their own food, especially in times of shortages.
放牧生活仍是东非地区的一种生活方式。牧民们在干燥、尘土飞扬的沙漠四处迁徙，寻找动物的食物和水源。但有人认为，这种畜牧迁徙对环境不利。他们表示，牧民应当在农场定居，自己种植食物，特别是在粮食短缺时期。
Not everyone agrees. Experts recently met in Nairobi to discuss what to do about food shortages caused by drought. They say pastoralists make the best use of resources.
并非所有人都赞同这一点。专家们最近在内罗毕举行会议，讨论如何面对干旱造成的粮食短缺。他们表示，牧民使资源得到了最大利用。
David Mwangi at the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute says grasslands have time to recover.
肯尼亚农业研究所的戴维·姆万吉（David Mwangi）表示，草原有时间自我恢复。
DAVID MWANGI: “Pastoralists would move in search for pasture and also water. Because what then would happen, if you are in a small area, the moment the water is exhausted, you would have to move to the next area where there is water. It gives the area you have left time to regenerate. And by the time you come back through the loop, this area now has pasture to graze.”
姆万吉：“牧民迁徙以寻找牧草和水源。当他们在一个很小的地区耗尽水资源的那一刻，就必须迁徙到下一个有水源的地区。而这将使牧民刚离开的地区有时间得以重生。当他们循环一圈再次回来这个地区时，这个地区又有牧草可以放牧。”
Mr. Mwangi says the land used for animals is often not good enough for farming, especially during droughts. He and other experts say pastoralism makes the most sense for dry and semi-dry lands.
姆万吉先生说，放牧用地通常不适合耕种，特别是在干旱期间。他和其他专家表示，牧民使得干旱和半干旱土地得到了最大利用。
Jeff Hill directs policy for the Bureau of Food Aid at the United States Agency for International Development. He says arid and semi-arid lands represent about eighty percent of the Horn of Africa. Livestock-based economies in these areas provide up to forty percent of agricultural production in Ethiopia and fifty percent in Kenya. And in Somalia, Mr. Hill says, the percentage is even higher.
杰夫·希尔（Jeff Hill）负责指导美国国际开发署粮食援助机构的相关政策。他表示，干旱和半干旱土地占到了非洲之角土地的80%。该地区畜牧业经济提供的农产品在埃塞尔比亚占到了40%，在肯尼亚占到了50%。希尔先生表示，这一比例在索马里甚至更高。
JEFF HILL: “In Somalia, livestock systems fuel the economy.”
希尔：“在索马里，畜牧业推动着经济发展。”
An estimated ninety percent of the meat eaten in East Africa comes from pastoralist herds.
预计东非地区食用的90%的肉类来自牧民的牲畜群。
Mr. Hill says Kenya and other governments have only recently recognized the value of arid and semi-arid lands. These lands have often been excluded from government planning and road building. Herders can face limited access to grazing and watering areas.
希尔先生表示肯尼亚和其他国家政府最近才意识到干旱和半干旱土地的价值。这些土地一直被排除在政府规划和道路建设之外。牧民进入可放牧和供水地区限制重重。
Researcher David Mwangi says communities need to be creative with the resources they have. He says a good example is a project in Kenya in which grass is grown in the desert to feed livestock.
研究员姆万吉表示，社区需要对他们拥有的资源具备创意。他说，一个很好的例子就是肯尼亚在沙漠中种植牧草饲养牲畜的项目。
DAVID MWANGI: “What would happen if we developed a system where we grow fodder and pasture along the river and the animals are taken off from the range and finished nearer to the market? What we need is a system, and that is what has been really lacking.”
姆万吉：“如果我们开发一个体系，沿河种植牧草，牲畜们被从牧场移送至此，牲畜出栏时更接近市场，结果会怎么样？我们需要的就是这样一个体系，而这正是一直所缺乏的。”
He also says more efforts need to be put into raising camels. Camels are often the only animals that produce milk during a drought.
他还表示，在养殖骆驼方面需要加大努力。骆驼是干旱时唯一产奶的动物。
And that’s the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson with Cathy Majtenyi. I’m Jim Tedder. |