Title:
Looking to Africa for Ideas About How to Fight
Hunger
Description: This is
a VOA Special English Agriculture Report.
See text below
Text:
Sub-Saharan Africa has the world's highest hunger
rate. The United Nations says thirty percent of the
people were undernourished last year. But a new
report says African farmers also have ideas that
could help the world fight hunger and poverty.
Danielle Nierenberg from the Worldwatch Institute in
Washington spent a year visiting twenty-five
countries south of the Sahara. In Nairobi, Kenya,
for example, Ms. Nierenberg found women farmers
growing vegetables just outside their doorsteps in
the Kibera settlement. She says the area is crowded,
dirty and noisy. But the people are finding ways to
make their lives better.The women use old sacks
filled with soil. They cut holes in the sides of the
tall bags so air gets to the seeds. The women feed
the vegetables to their families and sell their
surplus. They use the money to send their children
to school.Last year, an estimated nine hundred
twenty-five million people worldwide did not get
enough to eat. Half of all people in the world now
live in and around cities. Researchers like Ms.
Nierenberg are looking increasingly at creative
ideas to feed those who are malnourished. She said
there are a lot of lessons that people in the
Western world can learn from Africa. And what they
are doing can be done in other developing
countries.Farmers in the developing world lose
between twenty and forty percent of their harvest
before it ever reaches market. Asma Lateef from the
group Bread for the World says there are many
reasons why food gets wasted. Farmers are without
electricity and cold storage. They lack good seeds
and fertilizer. They lack good roads. Ms. Lateef
says conditions like these keep small farmers in
poverty.Danielle Nierenberg says more attention
needs to be paid to protecting harvests. In Nigeria,
village processing centers are helping farmers
reduce their losses and earn more money. The centers
process cassava, a root vegetable, into basic food
products. In Uganda, the Worldwatch report says some
schools are teaching children how to grow local
crops. And in South Africa and Kenya the report
praises the breeding of local kinds of livestock.
These animals may produce less milk or meat than
other breeds, but they can survive heat and drought
conditions. The report is called "State of the World
2011: Innovations That Nourish the Planet."For VOA
Special English I'm Alex Villarreal.
Hi. I
personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
To post a comment:
• Click "Comment using..." in
the window below
• Click your favorite service: Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail
• Login to the service
• Click "Add a comment..."
• Post your comment in the window
Students: Please post a
comment stating what you found interesting about this video. You are
welcome to include links to your English study blogs and any
other materials you think might be useful for learning
English.
Teachers: Please post your
thoughts about this video. You are welcome to include links to
your sites, blogs, and any other materials you think might
be useful for learning English.
Hi. I
personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
