中國網站品牌欄目（頻道）
英語學習論壇的“聽力練習區”正式與大家見面啦。歡迎大家來這里練習聽力，交流經驗，共同進步。
本練習區的音頻文件選自英語點津的“聽中國日報”、“VOA常速”、“流行金曲”及“名人演講”等欄目，題材豐富，難度各異，適合不同階段的英語學習者。
英語點津會定期發布音頻材料，大家可以在跟帖中貼出自己聽寫出的音頻文字稿。每個音頻材料的標準文字稿會在帖子發布兩天后公布。
This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.
Today we continue telling about a report by three geography experts from American colleges. They studied food security in Gambia, Ivory Coast and Mali over 30 years.
In the 1980s, governments and lenders like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund changed market policies. They launched free markets designed to improve agriculture. The report, however, suggests that the changes caused loss of important support systems for farmers.
Private investment in agriculture largely replaced government help. In some places, roads and mills built to help farmers fell into ruin. Protectionist import taxes and farm supports were cut.
Farmers planted more of their best crops, or "cash crops," for export. They planted fewer food crops for local use. Less costly rice came into the ports of Gambia and Ivory Coast. Many city people in those countries liked the cheap rice more than rice grown locally.
Researcher Judith Carney works at the University of California at Los Angeles. She said buying the cheaper imported rice worked well until the worldwide food crisis of 2008. Then, many people could not pay for an important part of their diet.
Researcher Laurence Becker of Oregon State University said some local farmers stopped farming. Food production fell and unemployment rose.
The researchers said people in Mali were able to deal better with the food crisis. Mali's farmers supplied more of their nation's rice needs than the other two countries studied. And the poorest people in Malian cities ate sorghum instead of rice.
William Moseley of Macalester College in Minnesota led the report. Professor Moseley said Malian farmers had planted more sorghum because the price of their cotton, a cash crop, had dropped.
Unlike Ivory Coast and Gambia, Mali has no seaports. He said this is often seen as a problem for Mali. But it caused them to depend less on imported rice.
Based on their research, the experts suggest that farmers plant a variety of crops and not just depend on rice. They also say governments could place some trade barriers. And, they urge that mills and roads be built or rebuilt to process and carry grains to market.
And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. I'm Steve Ember.
（來源：VOA 編輯：陳丹妮）
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