Yuan Longping (Chinese: 袁隆平; Pinyin: Yuán Lóngpíng; born September 7, 1930) is a Chinese agricultural scientist and educator, known for developing the first hybrid rice varieties in the 1970s. His "hybrid rice" has since been grown in dozens of countries in Africa, America, and Asia—providing a robust food source in high famine risk areas. He is called "The Father of Hybrid Rice". His contribution to mankind is enormous. By his achievement, the earth is able to produce extra rice equivalent to the food requirement of tens of millions of people.
At present, as much as 60 percent of China's total rice grown is Yuan Longping’s hybrid rice species. More rice so produced is enough to feed 60 million people. Worldwide, 20% of rice comes from the rice species created by hybrid rice following his methodology.
The "Super Rice" Yuan is now testing yields 30 percent higher than those of common rice.
A famous economist, Don Paarlberg claimed the Yuan’s achievement as a victory over the threat of famine and that Yuan was ushering us into a world with ample food.
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Mr. Yuan was born in Beijing, China. He loves playing Mahjong and the Erhu (a Chinese bowed instrument), swimming, sudoku, and motorcycling.
Born in 1930 and a graduate from the Southwest Agriculture Institute in 1953, Yuan began his teaching career at an agriculture school in Anjiang, Hunan Province.
He came up with an idea for hybridizing rice in the 1960s, when a series of natural disasters and inappropriate policies had plunged China into an unprecedented famine that caused many deaths.
Since then, he has devoted himself to the research and development of a better rice breed. In 1964, he happened to find a natural hybrid rice plant that had obvious advantages over others. Greatly encouraged, he began to study the elements of this particular type.
The biggest problem by then, was having no known method to reproduce hybrid rice in mass quantities, and that was what Yuan set out to solve. In 1964, Yuan created his theory of using the probably-existing naturally-mutated male-sterile rice individuals for the creation of reproductive hybrid rice species, and in two years he managed to find a few individuals of such male-sterile rice that he predicted could be used for his research. Subsequent experiments proved his theory feasible, which was his most important contribution on hybrid rice.
Yuan went on to solve more following problems. The first experimental hybrid rice species cultivated didn't show any significant advantage over common ones, so Yuan suggested to crossbreed rice with its further relative: the wild rice. In 1970, he found an important specie of wild rice that he needed for the creation of high-yield hybrid rice species. In 1973, in cooperation with others, he was finally able to establish a complete process of creating and reproducing high-yield hybrid rice species.
The next year they successfully cultivate a type of hybrid rice species which had great advantages. It yielded 20 percent more per unit than that of common ones, putting China in the lead worldwide in rice production. For this achievement, he was dubbed the "Father of Hybrid Rice."
At present, as many as 50 percent of China's total rice fields grow Yuan Longping’s hybrid rice species and yield 60 percent of the rice production in China. Due to Yuan's hard work, China's total rice output rose from 5.69 billion tons in 1950 to 19.47 billion tons last year, about 300 billion kilograms more have been produced over the last twenty years. The annual yield increase is enough to feed 60 million people.
The "Super Rice" Yuan is now working on yields are 30 percent higher than those of common rice. A record yield of 17,055 kilograms per hectare was registered in Yongsheng County in Yunnan Province in 1999.
In 1979, his technique for hybrid rice was introduced into the United States, the first case of intellectual property rights transfer in the history of new China.
He has gone abroad every year to provide guidance. He also sent scientists to India, Vietnam, Myanmar and Bangladesh to work as advisors. Between 1981 and 1998, the Hunan Hybrid Rice Research Center under Yuan Longping held 38 training classes with over 100 participants from 15 countries. With the help of Chinese scientists, the acreage of hybrid rice in Vietnam and India increased to 200,000 hectares and 150,000 hectares respectively in 1999.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization 1991 statistics show that 20 percent of the world's rice output came from 10 percent of the world's rice fields that grow hybrid rice.
Four asteroids and a college in China were named after him.
Mr. Yuan won the State Preeminent Science and Technology Award of China in 2000, the Wolf Prize in Agriculture and the World Food Prize in 2004.
He is currently the Director-General of the China National Hybrid Rice R&D Center and has been appointed as Professor at Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha. He is a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, foreign associate of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (2006) and the 2006 CPPCC.
Yuan worked as the chief consultant for the FAO in 1991.
Newstraitstimes:Prof Yuan Longping wins Mahathir Science Award 2011“杂交水稻之父”袁隆平获2011年马哈蒂尔科学奖 2011, president, 杂交水稻, present, 袁隆平 The Director-General of China's National Hybrid Rice Research and Development Centre, Professor Yuan LongPing, has been announced as the winner of the Mahathir Science Award 2011.
The announcement was made by Academy of Sciences Malaysia president Tan Sri Dr Ahmad Tajuddin Ali at a press conference here today. Also present was chairman of Mahathir Science Award Foundation Tun Ahamad Sarji Abdul Hamid.
“The award is conferred in recognition of his courage in independent thinking in rice breeding resulting in the innovative development of hybrid rice, a staple food of the tropics, that has revolutionised global rice production and sustainability,” Tajuddin said.
The Mahathir Science Award was launched by former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad in 2004, in recognition of scientists and institutions who had contributed to cutting edge tropical research that had an impact on society and carries a cash prize of RM100,000, accompanied by a gold medal and a certificate.
Professor Yuan also known as "Father of Hybrid Rice" was born on Sept 7, 1930 in Beijing and was the first to develop hybrid rice varieties in the 1970s, which had been grown in dozens of countries in Africa, America, and Asia, thus providing a robust food source in high famine risk areas.
Introduced by the Academy of Sciences Malaysia, the award is given to researchers who have made internationally recognised breakthroughs in pioneering tropical research, in the field of tropical medicine, tropical agriculture, tropical architecture and engineering and tropical natural resources.
The Academy of Sciences Malaysia received 19 nominations from scientists and institutions from around the world and two scientists were shortlisted for the award.
The Mahathir Science Award is bestowed on any scientist, institution or organisation, world wide, in recognition or contribution and innovation towards solving problems of the tropics through science and technology and to be rewarded on the most deserving based strictly on merit.
The poll was made by a selected community and their contributions were evaluated by experts from abroad which included Nobel prize winners.
| Honorary titles | ||
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| Preceded by Catherine Bertini |
World Food Prize 2004 |
Succeeded by Modadugu Vijay Gupta |
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