2008-07-15 Much About Mulch
This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Mulch is important to farmers. Mulch is a protective cover of material that is spread on top of soil. It is usually…
2008-07-08 Reports of Gains Bring Attention to Rice-Growing Method
This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Some farmers of irrigated rice in Asia, Africa and the Americas are using a production method called S.R.I. S.R.I. is short for…
2008-07-01 Study Sees Risk to California Plants From Climate Change
This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. California has more than two thousand kinds of plants that are not found anywhere else. A new study says climate change could…
2008-06-24 Adding Up Crop Losses From Midwest Floods
This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Farmers in parts of the American Midwest face a difficult recovery after the worst flooding in fifteen years. Storms that flooded rivers…
2008-06-17 Climate Change Meets American Agriculture
This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. A government report says climate change is already affecting American agriculture. The new report is from the Climate Change Science Program, which…
2008-06-10 World Gets a Call to Raise Food Production
This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. A United Nations conference on rising food prices ended with an agreement to invest more in agriculture. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon…
2008-06-03 Researchers Seek Drought-Resistant Crops
This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. One cause of the current food crisis is drought. Food prices are high in part because of dry weather in places as…
2008-05-27 UN Aims to Raise Potatoes’ Appeal
Some governments and agricultural experts have this advice to help people deal with high grain prices: Eat more potatoes. The United Nations has declared two thousand eight the International Year…
2008-05-20 Cork: More Than Just a Bottle Stopper
This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Cork is a light brown material harvested from the cork oak tree. Cork is lightweight, strong and resistant to water. It is…
2008-05-13 Honey Bee Losses Still a Problem in US
This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Honey bees add billions of dollars in value to around one hundred thirty crops in the United States. But since the nineteen…
2008-05-06 Using Charcoal to Make Soil Into Black Gold
This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. In South America, the fertile soil of the Amazon River basin in Brazil is known as “black gold.” Scientists found that the…
2008-04-29 Damage Control on the Farm
This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. The United States Department of Agriculture has a program called Wildlife Services. Its job is to help protect agricultural and other resources…
2008-04-22 When Tuberculosis Hits Animals
This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Bovine tuberculosis is a progressive wasting disease. It affects mainly cattle but also sheep, goats, pigs and other animals. People who get…
2008-04-15 Fighting a Food Crisis That Threatens to Spread Hunger and Unrest
This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Food inflation has led to growing protests in developing countries. In Haiti, the government fell Saturday after riots in which several people…
2008-04-08 The Danger of Desertification
This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Desertification is a process. It changes productive land into useless land. One example of desertification is when a desert spreads into nearby…