VOA常速英语:农药致使蜜蜂大量死亡

Harsh chemicals meant to boost agricultural output while endangering the honeybee. Our bees are decimated due to these products that farmers spread on tomatoes and coffee plantations. Beekeepers say pesticides farmers use drive away or kill their honeybees dealing a stinging blow to their livelihoods. Sometimes I open our hives to check when I can harvest and I find only a few bees alive, others are dead, other hives are empty. Fewer bees means a shortage of honey. We lost so many customers because honey prices have increased so much. Gilbert Kanez manages ABDC Limited, one of the Rwanda’s biggest honey producers, the company exports natural honey to Europe. Few people can afford our products and the honey is becoming only for the rich. It wasn’t always like this. We are losing our customer.
At the heart of it all, local farmers like Angelique Bamurange sprang their crops to keep pests at bay.
You see that when we spread pesticides, bees immediately have problems and escape. All the bees flee. I think this product we use to kill insects is dangerous for bees. Bamurange says sometimes the bees come back in a week. But that’s little comfort the beekeepers like Jean Sibomana. I asked the government to stop selling these products that kill bees, ban them, make something else, or else the next generation will only see bees in books. For its part, the Rwandan government says it plans to shift from synthetic to biodegradable pesticides to halt the bee die-off. A 2016 United Nations report estimates 16 percent of pollinators are threatened with extinction.