Agriculture Report - Avoiding Food Crises in Sahel

Listening and Doing Exercise:

Select Play button. Listen and fill in the blanks with suggest words

Africa	Aid	David	From	How	Special	They	affected	and	children
crisis	cultural	eases	find	for	four	from	go
in	just	poor	protections	put	say	than	this	to	year

VOA Learning English, this is the Agriculture Report in English. Severe food shortages in the Sahel area of have affected 18 million people in nine countries this (2012). This was the third severe food crisis in years in the area south of the Sahara Desert. can the Sahel break its cycle of food insecurity? workers are asking that question as this year's emergency . David Gressly is the United Nations regional humanitarian coordinator the Sahel. He says during a crisis, families eat one or two meals a day. They take their out of school. And they sell their animals and into debt. These actions put them at greater risk a future crisis. In fact, many of the families by this year's food crisis have yet to recover earlier ones. Aid agencies sent food and emergency assistance. supplied farmers with drought-resistant seeds, improved fertilizers and medicines livestock. Aid groups also worked to improve irrigation systems grain storage. These measures dealt with short-term needs. But, Gressly says the work should not stop when the easesHe says there is a need for targeted programs these 18 million people. He says the programs should ways to avoid crises so that people do not their futures at risk just to survive. Aid groups they are working to build the resilience of communities, make them stronger during a crisis. David Gressly says means taking steps like reducing child malnutrition and changing practices that may be harmful. Building the resilience of people also means investing in food reserves and social like health care. Aid groups say prevention costs less treatment. For VOA Learning English, I'm Alex Villarreal.

SCORE: