VOA慢速英語(yǔ):菲律賓為臺(tái)風(fēng)海燕之后的首次水稻豐收做足準(zhǔn)備

[00:00.00]From VOA Learning English, [00:01.07]this is the Agriculture Report. [00:03.61]Some farmers in the central Philippines [00:06.96]are preparing for their first rice harvest [00:10.17]since a powerful typhoon hit the country. [00:13.78]Typhoon Haiyan caused major damage [00:17.33]over a wide area and destroyed homes. [00:21.03]The storm killed more than 6,000 people. [00:25.43]Florencio de la Cruz remembers typhoon Haiyan. [00:29.68]He says he had harvested six tons of rice [00:33.42]less than two weeks before the storm hit. [00:37.12]Strong winds blew off the top of the storehouse [00:41.22]where he kept his rice. [00:43.17]Heavy rain nearly destroyed his harvest. [00:47.52]However, the sun helped dry some of the crop [00:51.37]and he was able to recover a little. [00:54.43]Late last year Florencio de la Cruz [00:57.98]received rice seeds from the United Nations' [01:01.98]Food and Agriculture Organization. [01:04.99]The FAO helped start the planting season [01:09.14]in the central Philippines. [01:10.59]More than two thirds of the local population [01:14.15]lives in poverty. [01:16.26]Mr De la Cruz says, nothing would have happened [01:21.06]without the seed program. [01:23.01]He expects to harvest the new crop on March 28. [01:28.26]Last year, officials said 63,000 hectares of rice [01:34.47]had to be replanted after Haiyan struck. [01:38.57]In 2012, another storm reduced the government's supply of seed. [01:44.94]Philippine officials say [01:47.10]the FAO donated 52 percent of the required seeds. [01:52.46]The international community donated another 28 percent. [01:58.57]The rest came from the Philippine government. [02:01.97]Graziano da Silva is the Director of the FAO. [02:07.07]Earlier this month, He inspected the seed program [02:11.68]in the area where Florencio de la Cruz lives. [02:15.42]Mr da Silva says the farmers are receiving [02:19.02]what he calls "certified quality" seeds. [02:22.48]He says these seeds should produce more crops [02:26.43]than the seeds farmers have now. [02:28.63]But he says the first group of seeds was provided [02:33.17]under less than perfect conditions. [02:36.13]"Remember the typhoon came exactly in the moment [02:40.99]that was close in the time for another planting [02:44.89]and we needed to do it in a week, two weeks and we did it. [02:49.10]The most import is the result would be zero [02:52.97]if we did not provide those," he said. [02:55.92]Mr Da Silva say the reaction of the international community [02:59.57]and agencies in the Philippines was one of the quickest he has seen. [03:04.73]He says the next step is to make sure the farmers [03:09.03]get a fair price for their rice crops. [03:11.78]He believes that this might influence them to plant even more. [03:17.04]Agencies say typhoon Haiyan destroyed 33 million coconut trees. [03:24.15]Philippine officials have announced plans [03:27.71]for large coconut clearing operation [03:30.51]in the area where the typhoon hit. [03:33.56]The goal is to plant new coconut trees. [03:37.42]The trees will need at least four years [03:40.88]before they can produce fruit. [03:43.32]For now, the agencies plan to help coconut farmers [03:47.73]plant fast-growing crops like cassava and white corn. [03:52.99]And that's the Agriculture Report. [03:56.24]I'm Jonathan Evans.

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