Yuan Longping, the father of hybrid rice, died

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Yuan Longping, winner of the Medal of the Republic of China, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, director of the China National Hybrid Rice Engineering Research Center, and former vice chairman of Hunan Provincial People's Political Consultative Conference, died of multiple organ failure at 13:07 on May 22, 2021 in Changsha. He was 91 years old.

Yuan Longping is the pioneer of hybrid rice research and development in China, and the first scientist in the world to successfully utilize the heterosis of rice, known as the "Father of Hybrid Rice". He broke away from the constraints of classical genetic views and began to study hybrid rice in 1964, successfully breeding the world's first practical high-yield hybrid rice variety "Nanyou 2". The achievements of hybrid rice have been widely applied in China since 1976, which greatly increased the yield per unit area and total yield of rice.

For more than 20 years, he has led his team to tackle the key problems of super hybrid rice, and achieved the goals of 10.5 tons, 12 tons, 13.5 tons and 15 tons per hectare for large-area demonstration in 2000, 2004, 2011 and 2014. Sanyou No. 1, the newly bred third-generation hybrid rice, will produce 911.7kg per mu in 2020 for double cropping late rice, and 619.06kg per mu in addition to the second-generation hybrid early rice. The annual per mu yield will reach 1530.76kg, achieving the key goal of annual per mu rice yield of 3000 kg. "Developing hybrid rice for the benefit of the people of the world" is Yuan Longping's lifelong pursuit. To realize this ambition, he has long been committed to promoting hybrid rice to the world. At present, hybrid rice has been planted in large areas in India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, the United States, Brazil, Madagascar and other countries, the annual planting area of 8 million hectares, the average yield per hectare is about 2 tons higher than the local superior varieties. Yuan Longping was awarded the National Grand Prize for Invention in 1981, the first National Top Science and Technology Award in 2001, the National Grand Prize for Science and Technology Progress in 2014, the title of "Reform Pioneer" in 2018, and the "Medal of the Republic" in 2019. He has also won more than 20 domestic and international awards, such as the UNESCO Science Prize.

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