The Chinese scientist known as the "Father of Hybrid Rice," whose lifelong work helped improve food security and quality around the world, dies at 90.
According to the state news arm, Xinhua News Agency, researcher Yuan Longping died Saturday, May 22, in the city of Changsha in Southern China. Local media additionally reports that shortly after the "Father of Hybrid Rice" passed away, crowds gathered outside the hospital bidding farewell to the scientist.
An article from the South China Morning Post reports that the agronomist died of multiple organ failures.
Exploring the Hybrid Varieties of Rice
Yuan Longping has been studying rice varieties at least since the 1970s when he began the breakthrough in breeding the rice plant, which is a staple food among most Asian nations. The Father of Hybrid Rice developed a new strain of the plant that was able to create an annual yield of 20 percent greater than natural varieties of rice. This translates to feeding an additional 70 million people every year.
A published paper detailing the progress of hybrid rice details Yuan Longping's pioneering work in the field. Traveling across China, the Father of Hybrid Rice first found a natural male-sterile mutant plant in indica variants of rice, as well as pollen abortive genotypes from wild rice (Oryza rufipogon, also known as a brown beard or red rice), which he used as the donor for male-sterile source. Crossbreeding the long-grained and the wild variants, he came up with a range of promising hybrid varieties of rice. In 1974, Nanyou 2 was spread for cultivation in China.
Helping solve the unprecedented famine that caused the deaths of millions of Chinese people in 1970, the country was able to recover in three decades and turned the country's "food deficiency to food security," according to the World Food Prize. Yuan Longping won the award in food and agricultural breakthroughs in 2004 together with Monty P. Jones, who developed the NERICA rice variant that was resistant to drought.
Guiding the Future of Food Security
Even in his advanced age, Yuan continued to support the agricultural research community by working on research studies and reports. In 2017, he published a report on the Crop Journal detailing the progress in breeding super-hybrid rice varieties.
"Super-hybrid rice has a very brightfuture and can make a great contribution to world food security and peace," the Father of Hybrid Rice concluded in his report.
A 2012 study assessed the impact of hybrid rice on global food security. By using a "spatial equilibrium model" called RICEFLOW, researchers examined 60 regions worldwide. This included production processes as well as trade flows and consumption patterns. Comparing the results of the model, which incorporated hybrid rice production, to a benchmark model, researchers discovered that the hybrid varieties of rice were able to induce an average of 10.8 percent increase in global rice production, reaching as much as 12 percent for rice-producing countries.
Additionally, it also leads to improved rice consumption per capita and a positive impact on rice prices in the assessed territories.
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