Life Not So Sweet for Nigerian Sugar Farmers

对尼日利亚糖农来说，生活并不像糖那样甜。

From VOA Learning English, this is the Agriculture Report in Special English.
来自VOA的关于农业的报道
Farmers in northern Nigeria say their land could be some of the most productive for sugar in West Africa. But they say that productivity is wasted without big local buyers.
北欧尼日利亚的农民来说，在西非，他们的土地是盛产糖的地之一，但是他们说多产并没有大量的当地购买者。
The Nigerian government has a new plan designed to help the local industry. For now, farmers sell sugar cane as snacks on the street while the country imports 97 percent of the sugar it uses.

尼日利亚政府针对该有一个已经筹划好的的新的计划用以帮助当地的产业，为此，当城市引入97%的糖时，农民把甘蔗当做小吃在大街上卖。

A laborer gathers sugarcane at a commercial farmland in Numan community, Adamawa state, northeast of Nigeria, Nov. 2009.

在2009年的11月，尼日利亚的北部，Adamawa州，Numan社区的一个商业农田，一个工人囤积了很多甘蔗，
Mallam Usman Abdu Gubuci has five hectares of land. He describes himself as one of the sugar farming "giants" in his area. He says his part of northern Nigeria could be a major supplier of sugar to West Africa. But he says farmers no longer even bother to grow sugar that can be refined.
Mallam有5公顷土地，但是他说农民不再种植甘蔗甚至懒得去取炼糖
"There is special sugar cane for that sugar, which we were introduced with. But when we planted it, no buyer. In other words, no industry to buy it."
“这是制糖中特殊用的甘蔗，它是我们引入的，但是当我们种了它后，却没有买家，换句话说，没有行业来买它”
Instead, he says, all of his product goes to local markets, and people drink sugar water from the sugar cane stalks. And while these stalks do sell, he says, it is not a business that can grow.
相反，他说，所有的他的产品都去了当地的市场，并且人们从甘蔗茎秆中提取喝糖水，他说，虽然可以卖这些茎秆，但是不足以成为一个可以成长的行业。
Last fall, the Nigerian government introduced a plan to decrease sugar imports and boost Nigerian production. The plan includes increasing taxes on imported sugar and giving tax breaks to anyone who wants to invest in local sugar refinement. It also calls for no import duties on machinery used for processing sugar.
去年秋天，尼日利亚政府介绍了一种减少糖的进口促进尼日利亚的产业，这个计划包含提高进口的税收和给那些想研究当地糖的提炼在税收方面优惠。同时号召进行机械加工的糖没有进口关税
Sugar officials say Nigeria spent $620 million on sugar imports in 2012. They do not expect that number to go down immediately.
官方称尼日利亚进口糖620million在2012年，他们不期待这个数字能尽快下降
Hajiya Bilkisu Mohammed heads the Association of Women Farmers in northern Nigeria. She says part of the reason local farmers cannot sell sugar for refining is that factories in this part of Nigeria face continual electrical shortages. The factories depend on costly power generators.

她说出了当地农民不能卖出提炼好的糖的部分原因是，尼日利亚的很多工厂面对持续的电力短缺，这些工厂依赖的是昂贵的发电机
Saidu Usman Gwambe is a sugar cane farmer. He says his land could be very profitable, but he is not sure how much longer he can wait for a government rescue.

In recent months the Nigerian government has also announced plans to reduce imports of other food products. In January, President Goodluck Jonathan promised to increase food production by 20 million metric tons by 2015. Doing this, he says, will create 3.5 million jobs and reduce Nigeria's dependence on imports.

在最近的几个月，尼日利亚政府也宣布计划减少其他农产品的进口，在1月，总统承诺到2015年会减少食品的产量到20million，通过这些，他说将会创造3.5milloin的工作机会和减少尼日利亚对进口的依赖程度

And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. I'm Karen Leggett.