Yuan Longping
Encyclopedia
Yuan Longping 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.
, 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.
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.
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.
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
agricultural
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
scientist
Scientist
A scientist in a broad sense is one engaging in a systematic activity to acquire knowledge. In a more restricted sense, a scientist is an individual who uses the scientific method. The person may be an expert in one or more areas of science. This article focuses on the more restricted use of the word...
and educator, known for developing the first hybrid rice
Hybrid rice
Hybrid rice is any genealogy of rice produced by crossbreeding different kinds of rice. As with other types of hybrids, hybrid rice typically displays heterosis such that when it is grown under the same conditions as comparable high-yielding inbred rice varieties it can produce up to 30% more 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
Famine
A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including crop failure, overpopulation, or government policies. This phenomenon is usually accompanied or followed by regional malnutrition, starvation, epidemic, and increased mortality. Every continent in the world has...
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
Don Paarlberg
Donald "Don" Paarlberg was a farmer, author, professor of agricultural economics, and a coordinator of the Food for Peace program.-Education:...
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.
Biography
Mr. Yuan was born in BeijingBeijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
. He loves playing Mahjong
Mahjong
Mahjong, sometimes spelled Mah Jongg, is a game that originated in China, commonly played by four players...
and the Erhu
Erhu
The erhu is a two-stringed bowed musical instrument, more specifically a spike fiddle, which may also be called a "southern fiddle", and sometimes known in the Western world as the "Chinese violin" or a "Chinese two-stringed fiddle". It is used as a solo instrument as well as in small ensembles...
(a Chinese bowed instrument), swimming, sudoku
Sudoku
is a logic-based, combinatorial number-placement puzzle. The objective is to fill a 9×9 grid with digits so that each column, each row, and each of the nine 3×3 sub-grids that compose the grid contains all of the digits from 1 to 9...
, and motorcycling
Motorcycling
Motorcycling is the act of riding a motorcycle. A variety of subcultures and lifestyles have been built up around motorcycling.-Benefits:Robert M. Pirsig's book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was a paean celebrating 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
Sterility (physiology)
Sterility is the physiological inability to effect sexual reproduction in a living thing, members of whose kind have been produced sexually. The term may be used in reference to* types of organism, such as the mule, a sterile hybrid;...
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.
Contribution to the World
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.
Honors and epic awards
Four asteroids and a college in China were named after him.Mr. Yuan won the State Preeminent Science and Technology Award
State Preeminent Science and Technology Award
Started in 2000, The State Preeminent Science and Technology Award of China is the highest prize annually awarded by the state president to scientists in China...
of China in 2000, the Wolf Prize in Agriculture
Wolf Prize in Agriculture
The Wolf Prize in Agriculture is awarded once a year by the Wolf Foundation in Israel. It is one of the six Wolf Prizes established by the Foundation and awarded since 1978; the others are in Chemistry, Mathematics, Medicine, Physics and the Arts...
and the World Food Prize
World Food Prize
The World Food Prize is an international award recognizing the achievements of individuals who have advanced human development by improving the quality, quantity or availability of food in the world.-The 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
Chinese Academy of Engineering
The Chinese Academy of Engineering is the national academy of the People's Republic of China for engineering. It was established in 1994 and is an institution of the State Council of China...
, foreign associate of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences
United States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
(2006) and the 2006 CPPCC.
Yuan worked as the chief consultant for the FAO
Food and Agriculture Organization
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations is a specialised agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger. Serving both developed and developing countries, FAO acts as a neutral forum where all nations meet as equals to negotiate agreements and...
in 1991.
See also
- 8117 Yuanlongping8117 Yuanlongping8117 Yuanlongping is a main-belt asteroid discovered on September 18, 1996 by the Beijing Schmidt CCD Asteroid Program at Xinglong. It is named after Yuan Longping.- External links :*...
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.
Literature
- The man who puts an end to hunger: Yuan Longping, “Father of Hybrid Rice”. Foreign Languages Press, Beijing 2007, ISBN 978-7-119-05109-3.