From the VOA Learning English, this is the Agriculture Report.
这里是美国之音慢速英语农业报道。
The military government of Thailand is ending payments to rice farmers to support the price of their crop. The policy was put in place by the civilian government ousted recently by the military. Officials are investigating charges of corruption and the possible loss of billions of dollars.
泰国军政府停止了向稻农支付补贴以支持他们的作物价格。这是由近期被军方赶下台的文官政府施行的一项政策。官员们正在调查有关腐败和数十亿可能损失的指控。
The military government says different measures are needed to increase agricultural development and support farmers. The rice support program was one of the most important policies of the government of ousted Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. It helped her party win the 2011 election.
泰国军政府称需要采取不同措施来促进农业发展和支持农民。这项大米支持计划是前总理英拉·西那瓦（Yingluck Shinawatra）领导的政府最重要的政策之一。该政策帮助英拉的政党赢得了2011年选举。
Under the policy, the government paid farmers 50 percent more than world market rice prices. The government said because Thailand was then the largest exporter of rice, it could use its power to increase the price of rice around the world.
根据该政策，泰国政府向农民支付国际市场大米价格的50%以上。政府表示，因为泰国当时是大米的最大出口国，它能够利用其能力，提高世界各地大米的价格。
But problems affected the program, which cost more than $19 billion. India became the world's largest rice exporter. The Thai government angered people by refusing to release information about the payments. And the program failed.
但一些问题影响到了这项耗费超过190亿美元的计划。印度成为全球最大的大米出口国。泰国政府拒绝发布有关补贴的信息激怒了人民。这项计划就此失败。
Thailand was not able to force an increase in the price of rice, and millions of tons of rice are now in storage buildings. Reports say 18 million tons of rice are being stored in Thailand, that is twice as many as normal levels.
泰国未能迫使大米价格上涨，现在有数百万吨大米储藏在仓库里。报告称1800万吨大米现在储藏在泰国，这是正常储藏水平的两倍。
The payments to rice farmers ended last year. Hundreds of thousands of farmers were not paid. Reports said about 20 farmers killed themselves because of financial problems. Others protested, gathering on the streets of the capital Bangkok to demand payments. In March, the government tried to make money by selling rice on the world market at lower prices.
给稻农的补贴于去年结束。上万农民未能得到补贴。报道称大约20位农民因为经济问题自杀。其他人则聚集在首都曼谷的街头抗议要求补贴。今年3月，泰国政府试图以较低价格在国际市场上出售大米筹钱。
David Dawe is a senior economist at the Food and Agriculture Organization -- a United Nations agency.
大卫·达维（David Dawe）是联合国机构粮农组织的高级经济师。
"One of the ways that they were raising money is they realized that they were going to have to sell some of the huge stocks that they had. They just couldn't continue to borrow money and sit on all these stocks and so they just started selling stocks," Dawe said.
达维说，“他们筹集资金的途径之一是他们认识到必须出售他们拥有的巨大库存。他们无法坐拥这些库存并继续借钱，所以他们开始抛售库存。”
There is some good news. The U.S. Agriculture Department predicts Thailand will be the world's biggest exporter of rice by next year. The department says Thailand will export almost 10 million tons, that is the largest amount since the country exported 10.6 million tons in 2011.
好消息也有。美国农业部预测，泰国将在明年成为世界上最大的大米出口国。该部门表示，泰国将出口近1000万吨大米，这是自2011年该国出口1060万吨大米后的最大出口量。
And that's the Agriculture Report from VOA Learning English. For more agriculture stories, go to our website 51voa.com. I'm Christopher Cruise.
以上就是本期美国之音慢速英语农业报道的全部内容。更多农业新闻，请访问我们的网站51voa.com。我是克里斯托弗·克鲁斯（Christopher Cruise）。(51VOA.COM对本文翻译保留全部权利，未经授权请勿转载，违者必究！)