VOA常速英语:Boosting Agriculture in South and Southeast Asia(翻译)

Millions of smallholder farmers in South and Southeast Asia are attempting to diversify beyond staple crops to increase their incomes, nutrition, and resilience in response to climate change and shifting market demand.Although they are potentially significant producers of fresh vegetables and farmed fish,most smallholders lack access to technologies that would help them produce the quantities and quality needed to earn income sustainably.To address this, the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, rolled out its new Feed the Future Asia Regional Innovative Farmers Project at the Agriculture Innovation Summit in Dhaka, Bangladesh January 24th.
南亚和东南亚的数百万小农试图通过实现主要作物多样化，来增加收入，提高经济效益和适应能力，以适应气候和市场需求的变化。虽然他们是新鲜蔬菜和养殖渔业的潜在主要生产者，但大多数农户缺乏相应的技术能力来提高作物的数量和质量，从而无法获得稳定收入。为了解决这个问题，美国国际开发署（USAID）于1月24日在孟加拉国达卡的农业创新峰会上，推出了新的 “保障未来粮食”亚洲区域创新农民项目。

Implemented by Winrock International, the regional project will increase food security, reduce poverty, and improve environmental sustainability by facilitating agricultural innovation and technology diffusion in several countries in Asia including Bangladesh.
该区域项目由温洛克国际执行，旨在增加粮食安全，减轻贫困并促进环境可持续发展，主要方式即促进包括孟加拉国在内的亚洲国家农业创新和技术推广。

To disseminate agricultural knowledge and expertise among the Asian countries,this new project will create challenge competitions to discover the most promising technologies, support partnerships and ultimately bring successful tools and practices to farmers in all stages of the supply chain – from productivity to marketing.The Honorable Additional Secretary of Bangladesh’s Ministry of Agriculture Musharaf Hossain and USAID Office of Economic Growth Director Matt Curtis spoke at the event.
为了在亚洲国家传播农业知识和专业知识，该项目将设置挑战竞争机制，以发现最有前景的技术，发展合作伙伴关系，并最终将成功的工具和实践经验应用到供应链的所有环节——从生产到营销。孟加拉国农业部名誉秘书Musharaf Hossain和美国国际开发署经济增长办公室主任Matt Curtis在活动上发言。

USAID also announced the winners of the Tech4Farmers Challenge, the very first challenge competition held under the Asia Regional Innovative Farmers Project that sought ways to improve the agricultural productivity and income of smallholder farmers in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Myanmar and Nepal.
国际开发署还宣布了Tech4Farmers挑战赛中的获奖技术，该大赛是亚洲区域创新农民项目举办的第一次挑战赛，旨在提高孟加拉国、柬埔寨、缅甸和尼泊尔小农的农业生产力以及收入水平。

The winners were the e-Fishery’s Smart Fish Feeder, an Indonesia-based technology that combines automatic feeding with sensors and algorithms that sense fish’s appetite and adjust the amount of feed to improve efficiency.Another winner was the Innovative Spirulina Production, a system created by EnerGaia in Thailand that maximizes algae production with minimal resources,reducing potential for contamination in its bioreactor design and allows spirulina production nearly anywhere.Unlike many challenges, the Tech4Farmers Innovation Challenge did not offer a cash prize,but provided winners the information, business services and access to networks to help expand innovative solutions into new markets in low-income countries.
获奖技术之一是由e-Fishery设计的智能饲喂器，这种技术由印度尼西亚制造，结合了自动饲喂传感器和演算法，可以感应鱼的食欲并调整饲料量，大大提高了效率。另一项获奖技术是螺旋藻生产创新技术，这个系统由泰国的EnerGaia建立，可以利用最少的资源生产最多的藻类，其生物反应器设计减少了潜在的污染，并使得螺旋藻生产可以几乎不受环境限制。与许多挑战赛不同的是，Tech4Farmers创新挑战赛并没有提供现金奖励，而是为获奖者提供了相关信息，业务服务和网络接入，以利于将创新解决方案扩展到低收入国家的新市场。

The U.S. Government, through USAID, has provided more than 6 billion dollars in development assistance to Bangladesh since 1971.The U.S. is proud to work with Bangladesh to promote prosperity for the people of the U.S., Bangladesh, and the entire region.
自1971年以来，美国政府通过美国国际开发署向孟加拉国提供了超过60亿美元的发展援助。美国很自豪能与孟加拉国合作，促进美国，孟加拉国和整个地区人民的繁荣富裕。