Although May 24 was a working day, thousands of people wearing black went to the Mingyangshan Funeral Home in Hunan province to present flowers and bunches of rice plants to honor Yuan Longping. The top rice scientist, (refer) to as the "father of hybrid rice", died of organ failure at age 91 on May 22.
Born in 1930 in Beijing, Yuan (witness) the despair of people who lost their land they lived on in an era of war. So when he applied university, he decided to study agriculture. He began researching hybrid rice in 1964, (succeed) in producing the world's first high-yielding hybrid rice strain in 1973.
Yuan Longping was selfless when came to sharing his research to benefit people globally. To date, his hybrid rice strain (plant) in large areas of India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Vietnam, the US and Brazil. "Professor Yuan was (incredible) humble, never seeking fame or praise, instead focusing only on hard work and results could help remove poverty and lift people out of hunger," Kenneth M. Quinn, president of the World Food Prize Foundation, told China Daily.
Yuan could make such achievements partly because he believed in power of science as a harvest multiplier, noted People's Daily.
The UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs mourned (he) passing on Twitter, saying, "Yuan passed away today at 91 but his mission to end hunger lives on."
