VOA常速英语2013--帮助马达加斯加消灭蝗灾（在线收听）

Campaign Begins to End Locust Plague 帮助马达加斯加消灭蝗灾

More than a year after a locust plague was declared in Madagascar, a control program finally is about to begin. Massive swarms of the insects have damaged or destroyed large areas of cropland and pastures.

在马达加斯加岛发生蝗灾一年多后，一个控制项目最终启动了。大批蝗虫破坏、毁掉了大面积的农田和牧场。

Aerial and ground surveys are underway in Madagascar to map the locations of the Malagasy migratory locust swarms.

马达加斯加目前正在进行空中和地面调查，以对这里迁移的蝗虫制作地图。

Annie Monard, locust response coordinator for the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, currently is in Madagascar. Monard was among those who sounded the alarm over a year ago.

Annie Monard是联合国粮农组织(FAO)蝗虫应对协调员，她目前在马达加斯加，她是一年多前发出蝗虫警报的人之一。

“It is a plague – no doubt concerning that. It’s a plague because numerous locust swarms escaped the outbreak area. The declaration of plague was made in April 2012.”

“这是一场灾难，毫无疑问。因为大批蝗虫逃离爆发地区，2012年4月宣布虫灾发生。”

Despite the announcement of a locust emergency, the response was slow to develop. That allowed the swarms to spread even further from the southwest where they’re endemic.

尽管虫灾应急宣布了，有关反应却很慢。这就导致蝗虫蔓延到西南部，导致那里泛滥成灾。

The problem began several years earlier when the last control program – funded by the African Development Bank – ended. The FAO launched emergency campaigns in 2010, 2011 and 2012, but they were not enough to stop the locust plague from developing.

虫灾问题开始于几年前，当时由非洲发展银行资助的最后的控制项目刚结束。FAO于2010年、2011年和2012年启动应急项目，但并未能阻止虫灾继续蔓延。

“What we did and what FAO does for many, many years is always to promote what we call preventive control strategy. Unfortunately, there are always some situations during which it is not possible to apply the preventive strategy; and progressively the locust situation deteriorated, arising at the level we have now,” she said.

“我们和FAO多年来所做的总是促进所谓的预防性控制战略，不幸的是，总存在一些不能应用预防战略的情况，这就导致虫灾越来越恶化，一直导致目前的局面。”

Then late last year, Monard said Madagascar’s agriculture minister requested the FAO’s help in developing a new spraying campaign. That is now scheduled to be conducted in three stages, between October of this year and September 2016. Total cost of the three-year campaign is over $41-million.

去年年底，Monard说马达加斯加的农业部长请求FAO帮助发展一个新的喷洒项目。目前该项目被制定为三个阶段，时间在今年10月到2016年9月之间。这项三年项目的总成本超过4100万美元。

“For the time being, we got from a wide range of donors the budget for the first year. But we have still to advocate and to get the budget for the two following campaigns, which will allow us and allow the country to go back to a recession situation,” she said.

“目前我们收到很多捐赠者为第一年预算提供的帮助，但我们仍需努力得到以后两年预算的援助。”

The FAO has raised $23 million dollars for the first year of the campaign.

FAO已为第一年的项目筹资了2300万美元。

The focus of the spraying will be on hopper bands, when the locusts are still wingless. Hoppers are more sensitive to pesticides that are less harmful to the environment, including those that contain a fungus. Besides spraying hoppers directly, pesticides will be used to create barriers or buffer zones. This is done by spraying the ground every 600 to 800 meters.

喷洒主要是在蝗虫跳虫的地带上，当时蝗虫还没有翅膀。跳虫对那些对环境有较小危害的杀虫剂很敏感，包括那些含有真菌的杀虫剂。除了直接喷洒跳虫外，杀虫剂还可用来制造隔离带或缓冲区。杀虫剂被喷洒到每600到800米的地面上。

It’s estimated that of the 13 million people at risk, about nine million are directly dependent on agriculture for food and income. In some regions, 70 percent of the rice and maize crops have been damaged. As the control program gets underway, the locusts are expected to move to the north where the more productive agricultural lands are located.

估计有1300万人处于危险中，其中约900万人直接依赖于农业来获取食物和收入。在有的地区，70%的水稻和玉米已被毁掉。随着控制项目的实施，这些蝗虫有望转移到产量更高的北方农田里。