This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.
这里是美国之音慢速英语农业报道节目。
Advice on how much fertilizer to use will soon be just a phone call away for rice farmers in the Philippines.
对菲律宾农民来说，在不久之后，咨询如何施肥将只需要打个电话。
The Philippine Department of Agriculture and the International Rice Research Institute plan to launch a free service next month.
菲律宾农业部和国际水稻研究所计划于下月开推出一项免费服务。
Farmers will call a number and a recorded voice will ask them simple questions in Tagalog or other languages including English.
农民只需要拨打一个号码，答录机将使用塔加洛语〔菲律宾国语〕或包括英语在内的其他语言询问一些简单的问题。
RECORDED VOICE: "Welcome. This is the nutrient manager for rice. Answer a statement by pressing the appropriate number on your phone."
录音：“您好，这里是水稻肥料专家，请使用手机相应按键回答问题。”
For example, to get fertilizer guidelines for the wet season, they press one. For the dry season, they press two.
例如，获得雨季施肥指南请按1，旱季施肥指南请按2。
Farmers will be asked about the size of their field and how many bags of rice it produced last year.
农民会被问到他们农田的规模以及上一年的收成。
What about natural sources of fertilizer? Does the farmer return rice straw to the field? Is the field near a lake or river that floods, or in a low area collecting soil and other material from nearby hills?
天然肥料来自何处？是否将秸秆还田？农田是靠近河流湖泊得以灌溉，还是位于低洼处，得以从附近坡地收集土壤与其他养分？
About ten minutes later the farmer will get a text message. The message will advise what kind of fertilizer to use and how much. The grower will also get suggestions about when to plant and harvest the rice.
大约10分钟后，农民将收到一条短信，短信将对肥料类别和用量提出建议。农民还将得到关于何时播种何时收割水稻的建议。
Roland Buresh at the International Rice Research Institute helped developed the system. Mr. Buresh says fertilizer represents about one-fifth of the cost of inputs for rice production.
国际水稻研究所的罗兰·伯什（Roland Buresh）帮助开发了该系统。伯什表示，肥料费用约占水稻种植投入的1/5。
He says the service could help farmers in the Philippines increase their yields and their profits.
他称，这项服务能帮助菲律宾农民提高产量和利润。
ROLAND BURESH: "If we in a year can be reaching just five thousand farmers and their fields can be increasing the yield by half a ton per hectare, we could be looking at profitabilities for those farmers in the range of half a million dollars."
伯什：“如果一年内拨打电话的农民人数达到5000位，这些农民的农田产量每公顷增加0.5吨，那么这些农民的利润将增加50万美元左右。”
Danielle Nierenberg at the Worldwatch Institute, an environmental research group, says the system could also help reduce pollution.
环境研究组织世界观察研究所(Worldwatch Institute)的丹尼尔·尼伦伯格（Danielle Nierenberg）表示，该系统还可以帮助减少污染。
DANIELLE NIERENBERG: "In the Philippines and all over Asia, fertilizer has been overused and misused because no one explains to them how much they need or how to use it."
尼伦贝格：“在菲律宾和整个亚洲，一直存在肥料滥用和误用的问题，因为没人告诉他们，应该施多少肥，应该怎样施肥。”
The technology could also be copied for crops in other places. Danielle Nierenberg has been traveling across sub-Saharan Africa. She says the cost of a cell phone there is low enough that most farmers have their own or borrow someone else's.
这项技术也可以被复制用于其它地区的农作物。尼伦贝格正在走访撒哈拉以南非洲。她说，那里的手机价格很便宜，大部分农民都有自己的，或借用的手机。
In Zambia, for example, farmers without bank accounts can use their phones to buy seeds and fertilizers. They can also get information on how much their crop is selling for in city markets.
例如，在赞比亚，没有银行账户的农民可以使用手机来购买种子和肥料。他们还可以通过手机查询农作物在城区市场上的售价。
DANIELLE NIERENBERG: "They can decide whether they want to travel all the way from their village to the city, because sometimes farmers get there and prices are too low."
尼伦贝格：“他们可以由此决定是否需要进城，因为有时农民到了城里却发现城里售价太低。”