VOA常速英语2008年-US Rice Farmers Boost Production as World Faces

By Greg Flakus
Dayton, Texas
15 April 2008

A dramatic surge in the international price for rice has U.S. producers planting more fields in an effort to increase profits.  But, as VOA's Greg Flakus reports from the rice-growing area of Dayton, Texas, high costs could limit their margins¹.

Tractors are tilling the land and building earthen rows that will serve as levees once water flows into these fields.  This area of southeast Texas is one of the best rice growing areas of the United States. Other states that also produce major amounts of rice include Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi.

Ray Stoesser plants rice on more than 1,800 hectares of land in the area near his home in Dayton, Texas and he is hoping the recent jump in prices will help him come out ahead.

"Naturally, we watch the market and the market is better than it has been since 1974 right now," he said.  "We can grow rice and make a good yield and we can usually get a second growth, so we will maximize our profits."

The price of rice has more than doubled in the past year, but Stoesser says production costs have also risen.

"Fertilizer went up $80 a ton last week," he added.  "It just seems like when we need it, everything goes up.  All our suppliers say they cannot get potash and they cannot get phosphorous and, of course, nitrogen is mostly imported into this country right now, so we have to depend on foreign sources for that."

Dwight Roberts is president and Chief Operating officer of the Houston-based U.S. Rice Producers Association.  He says rice is the most expensive crop to grow in the United States because it is fully² mechanized, so he says farmers in some of the best growing areas for rice are cautious in their planting decisions.

"The bulk of the U.S. rice crop is yet to be planted as we go north into Louisiana and up into Arkansas to the Missouri boot heel," he noted³.

Roberts says the United States exports about half the rice it produces, so when prices are low on the world market, farmers tend to shift production to crops that are more profitable at home, like corn and soybeans.  The price of both of those crops has risen sharply in recent years because of their use in making bio-fuels.

Dwight Roberts says the reason for the international shortage of rice has to do, in many cases, with government policies in nations where prices for consumers were subsidized without providing incentives⁴ for farmers.  He also blames drought in Australia, where rice production has virtually come to a halt, and an increase in demand driven by population growth.

"Economists⁵ predict that the world population will grow by one billion people during the next 10 years and the middle class will grow by 1.8 billion people and 600 million of those are in China, and when people move up in the economic chain they want to eat better, they want more protein, which requires more grain and more fuels to produce it," he said.

Growth in population has also contributed to urban sprawl⁶.  The loss of arable⁷ land to housing, roads and other infrastructure⁸ has also reduced the world's rice production.

Dwight Roberts says all of these factors have come together to reduce the amount of rice available.

"We have seen in a number of countries including Vietnam, Thailand, the United States, India, Pakistan and, to some degree, in Uruguay and Argentina, we have seen reductions and so now it is a simple case of supply and demand and we have gotten to a point where world stocks of rice are at the lowest today since the early 1970's and we have had a lot of population growth since then, so there is a very tight supply and Third World consumers in particular are hurting right now,"  he added.

Increased production in the United States will help alleviate⁹ the rice shortage in some parts of the world.  The United States has promised to help the Philippines, which imports about 15 percent of the rice consumed in the country and is facing severe shortages.  But overall, the demand for this grain worldwide is likely to outpace production, keeping the price high and promoting social unrest in poor nations where food supplies are low.

1 margins   

边( margin的名词复数 )； 利润； 页边空白； 差数

参考例句：

• They have always had to make do with relatively small profit margins. 他们不得不经常设法应付较少的利润额。
• To create more space between the navigation items, add left and right margins to the links. 在每个项目间留更多的空隙，加左或者右的margins来定义链接。

2 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

3 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

4 incentives   

激励某人做某事的事物( incentive的名词复数 )； 刺激； 诱因； 动机

参考例句：

• tax incentives to encourage savings 鼓励储蓄的税收措施
• Furthermore, subsidies provide incentives only for investments in equipment. 更有甚者，提供津贴仅是为鼓励增添设备的投资。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

5 economists   

n.经济学家，经济专家( economist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The sudden rise in share prices has confounded economists. 股价的突然上涨使经济学家大惑不解。
• Foreign bankers and economists cautiously welcomed the minister's initiative. 外国银行家和经济学家对部长的倡议反应谨慎。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 sprawl   

vi.躺卧，扩张，蔓延；vt.使蔓延；n.躺卧，蔓延

参考例句：

• In our garden,bushes are allowed to sprawl as they will.在我们园子里，灌木丛爱怎么蔓延就怎么蔓延。
• He is lying in a sprawl on the bed.他伸开四肢躺在床上。

7 arable   

adj.可耕的，适合种植的

参考例句：

• The terrain changed quickly from arable land to desert.那个地带很快就从耕地变成了沙漠。
• Do you know how much arable land has been desolated?你知道什么每年有多少土地荒漠化吗？

8 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

9 alleviate   

v.减轻，缓和，缓解(痛苦等)

参考例句：

• The doctor gave her an injection to alleviate the pain.医生给她注射以减轻疼痛。
• Nothing could alleviate his distress.什么都不能减轻他的痛苦。