Academician Yuan Longping, China's "father of hybrid rice"

Yuan Longping, male, was born in Beijing in September 1930 and graduated from the Department of agronomy of Southwest Agricultural College in 1953. After graduation, he has been engaged in agricultural education and hybrid rice research.

From 1980 to 1981, he went to the United States as the technical director of the International Rice Research Institute. In 1982, he served as the deputy leader of the National Hybrid Rice Expert Advisory Group. In 1991, he was employed as the chief international consultant of FAO. He was elected academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering in 1995. Since 1971, he has been a researcher of Hunan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vice chairman of Hunan Provincial CPPCC, member of the Standing Committee of the CPPCC National Committee and director of the National Hybrid Rice Engineering and technology research center.

Academician Yuan Longping is a world-famous hybrid rice expert. He is the pioneer and leader in the field of Hybrid Rice Research in China. He has made outstanding contributions to the development of grain production and agricultural science in China and is known as the "father of hybrid rice". His main achievements are in the research, application and popularization of hybrid rice.

In the early 1970s, Yuan Longping used the "wild abortion" of natural male sterility discovered by his assistant as the sterile material of hybrid rice, and expressed the viewpoint of utilization of rice heterosis, breaking the restricted zone of self pollination crop breeding in the world. In the mid-1970s, the scientific and technological research group headed by him completed the three-line matching and successfully cultivated hybrid rice, realizing a historic breakthrough in hybrid rice. At present, the excellent varieties of hybrid rice in China have accounted for 50% of the national rice planting area, with an average increase of 20%. Since then, he put forward the development concept of "utilization of interspecific Heterosis of two-line method". According to this, the national "863" plan lists the two-line method as an important project. After six years of hard research by the scientific and technological personnel of the project team, he has mastered the technology of two-line method and popularized planting, which now accounts for 10% of the rice area, with good results.

In 1997, based on the international concept of "super rice", he put forward the technical route of "super high yield breeding of hybrid rice", which achieved good results in the experimental field, with a yield of nearly 800 kg per mu and rice quality similar to japonica rice, which attracted great attention in the world. It laid a foundation for further solving the problem of increasing rice yield in a large area.

With the joint efforts of agricultural science and technology workers across the country, more than 3.5 billion mu of hybrid rice was promoted and 350 billion kg of rice was increased from 1976 to 1999. In recent years, the annual planting area of hybrid rice in China is about 230 million mu, accounting for about 50% of the total area of rice, and the output accounts for nearly 60% of the total output of rice. The annual increase of rice can feed 60 million people, and the social and economic benefits are very significant.

Academician Yuan Longping loves the motherland and has noble morality. His achievements and contributions have had strong repercussions at home and abroad. The research results of hybrid rice have won the only special prize for invention in China so far. And has won the national highest science and technology award, UNESCO, FAO and other international awards. Although Yuan Longping has reached the age of 70, he is still active in the front line of scientific research and production practice as always, and constantly carries out research, experiment and application.