國(guó)家地理:澳洲農(nóng)業(yè)每況愈下

In Australia, it’s not just livestock hit hard by draught, but the next generation of farmers. At 24, Robert Watt, a farmer from Alectown, a region of Australia, has had seven seasons on the farm, but not one year of profit. He says the draught, plus a sharp spike in farming costs, has left a generational hole on farms.
“A lot of my mates have gone off farm, off farms and get the quick buck at the mine. And it's not usually by, by choices. It's...they're forced to, cos, uh, when they make a living, yeah.”
He says most young people have considered selling out, and explains that the prospect of not earning any money could eventually push him to leave as well.
“The only reason I would leave the land is the finance, the pressure of not being able to get a wage at the end of the week and do what you like with it.”
Robert has joined other young farmers at a meeting in Sydney recently, to work out ways to get more people back on the land. And some say farm finance is the key. Sam Gunn, the chairman of the Young Farmers’ Committee, says that encouraging young people to get the “first farm buyers” grant is important to help them get back into farming.
“And we’re just saying that, you know, people getting back and that encouraging young people back into farming if they get that first farm buyers grant, I really think it would be a step in the right direction to getting people back on the land.”
The farmers who stay on the land face new challenges. They have to manage with less rain, and decide which crops suit the changing conditions. Robert also says there is potential in agriculture to make some money, but external conditions such as the weather are elements that can’t be anticipated and controlled.
“Yeah, there’s definitely potential in agriculture. The, the, the price of the commodity at the moment is quite, quite good. It just depends if, if the weather comes our direction and we can crack a crop and some, some decent seasons for the livestock as well, we could, we can make a bit of money. It’s obviously out of our control.”
A spike in: a sudden large increase in the number or rate of something
Leave a hole (on) in: to use a large part of an amount of money, food etc
Get the quick buck: to make some money quickly
By choice: If you do something by choice, you do it because you want to do it and not because you are forced to do it
Work out: to find a solution for
Decent: proper, satisfactory
在澳大利亞，牲畜受到干旱的重大打擊，下一代農(nóng)民也會(huì)受到嚴(yán)重威脅。24歲的Robert Watt來(lái)自澳大利亞的Alectown地區(qū)，他已經(jīng)種植了七季，但是沒(méi)有任何一年是盈利的。他說(shuō)，由于干旱，加上農(nóng)業(yè)生產(chǎn)成本增加，他在土地上損失巨大。
“我的很多同伴都離開(kāi)了農(nóng)田，回到了來(lái)錢比較快的礦山。這是沒(méi)有選擇的……他們是被生活所迫，是的。”
他說(shuō)，很多年輕人考慮過(guò)將土地出售，他解釋說(shuō)，如果連續(xù)虧損，他也會(huì)考慮離開(kāi)。
“我離開(kāi)農(nóng)田的唯一原因就是經(jīng)濟(jì)原因，周末拿不到工資，不能去做自己喜歡做的事情的壓力。”
Robert和其他年輕人一起參加了最近在悉尼召開(kāi)的會(huì)議，主題是怎樣讓更多的年輕人回到土地上。有人說(shuō)，農(nóng)田是否賺錢是關(guān)鍵。Sam Gunn是年輕農(nóng)民委員會(huì)的主席，他說(shuō)，鼓勵(lì)年輕人找到第一批農(nóng)田買主對(duì)于他們回到農(nóng)田非常重要。
“我們說(shuō)，你知道，如果他們能找到第一批買主，他們就會(huì)回到農(nóng)田，我認(rèn)為，這是讓年輕人回到農(nóng)田的正確的一步。”
堅(jiān)守土地的農(nóng)民面臨著新的挑戰(zhàn)。雨量減少，他們必須找出更能適應(yīng)環(huán)境變化的作物。Robert說(shuō)，農(nóng)業(yè)要賺錢還是有潛力的，但是像天氣這樣的外部環(huán)境是不能預(yù)測(cè)，也無(wú)法控制的。
“是的，農(nóng)業(yè)肯定有潛力?，F(xiàn)在，農(nóng)產(chǎn)品的價(jià)格很好。關(guān)鍵取決于，天氣是否幫忙，如果天氣好，我們可以多收一點(diǎn)莊稼，牲畜也長(zhǎng)的好，這樣我們可能賺點(diǎn)錢。但是，很明顯，這是我們控制不了的。”