Mr. Vien Long Binh was still diligently researching hybrid rice until the last days of his life. Photo: CNS. The following article by Christina Jiang- a Chinese international student studying in the UK about the merits of professor-academician Yuan Longping, was published in 2019 in the newspaper. The Oxford Scientist. Jiang wrote: A few weeks ago, on October 1, 2019, something quite strange happened in my house: Our whole family had dinner next to the TV screen! It was the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, in 1949, after years of conflict and political instability. While we were reviewing the parade that morning and the gala dinner that lasted until midnight, my parents and grandparents started talking about Chinese history and culture. In 1973, Mr. Vien Long Binh was the first to develop hybrid rice and achieved hybrid dominance in rice. Hybrid dominance is where progeny hybrids of two different parents are produced with difficulty but are more productive and grow faster. The conversation eventually turned to the Chinese, especially scientists, who are quite famous at home, but barely known abroad. I felt very ashamed when I realized that out of all the names they were mentioning, I didn’t recognize any though sure, I had vaguely heard of them but couldn’t remember any. what. The great merit of agronomist Vien Long Binh helped the once-poor and most populous country in the world overcome hunger. Photo: CRI. The conversation continued until everyone talked about a special man: Vien Long Binh. Again, I don’t know what he did, but after listening and learning more about him, I understand why the people of this country respect him so much. When you start thinking about scientists, what do you usually think of? For me, those are big fields like physics, chemistry or medicine. And Mr. Vien here works in an industry that I didn’t even realize was considered science. He is an agronomist, a scientist active in the field of agriculture. Whether he did not cure a rare disease or discover fundamental truths about the universe, I think what he has achieved is equally important. Due to the self-pollinating nature of rice plants, hybridization is considered impossible because self-pollinating species have to undergo a long process of selection. Thus, all the inferior traits are removed and only the superior ones are left, which is detrimental to hybridization. But Mr. Vien Long Binh proved this wrong. He used a male sterile wild rice variety and produced a rice that was up to 20% more productive. Since then, its productivity has continuously increased. Currently, 50% of rice in China comes from agronomist Vien Long Binh’s hybrid varieties and produces 60% of the country’s total rice production. An estimated 300 billion kilograms of the rice varieties created by Mr. Vien have been planted in the past 20 years, and its yield growth alone is more than enough to feed an additional 60 million people. “Father of hybrid rice” Vien Long Binh cut his hair at a familiar salon in Trường Sa, Hunan province. Photo: Global Times. Those who have been interested in China’s long history of development will see why the topic of hybrid rice has attracted so much attention and become such a big deal. And that is also what prompted Mr. Yuan Longping to embark on his research career in response to one of the greatest disasters of the 20th century, the greatest famine in China. The disaster that left at least 36 million people starved to death began in 1959, when the Great Leap Forward was unleashed with misguided policies and natural disasters, leading to a food shortage crisis. on a nationwide scale. Although he has been working and producing results since the 1970s, it is only in the past 20 years that Mr. Vien Long Binh’s efforts have been recognized to a higher level. He was awarded the World Food Prize in 2004 and the Confucius Peace Prize in 2012. In 2019, at the age of 89, he continued to work, devoting his life to developing rice with higher yields and more difficult growing conditions. There are varieties that can grow in very arid conditions in Africa and may even one day grow in salt water. Hybrid rice varieties have since been grown in many countries in Africa, the Americas and Asia, providing food for areas at risk of famine. Because of his contribution, Mr. Vien was dubbed the “Father of Hybrid Rice” by the Chinese media. In the world’s most populous country, there are now at least four famous landmarks and a university named after him. Professor-academician Yuan Longping born on September 7, 1930 is a famous Chinese agronomist, known for creating the first hybrid rice varieties in the 70s of the last century. He won the China Preeminent Science and Technology Prize in 2000, the Agriculture Prize and the 2004 World Food Prize. Before his death, he was still the leader of the China National Hybrid Rice Research and Development Center. He is also a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a former associate of the US National Academy of Sciences. Mr. Vien Long Binh also served as chief advisor to FAO in 1991.

Mr. Phan Quoc Chinh, Deputy Director of Lam Dong Center for Science and Technology Application, Head of the topic inside the orchid tissue culture laboratory Di Linh Giac. (Photo: Nguyen Dung/VNA) Nuclear Research Institute (headquartered in Da Lat city, Lam Dong province) is a leading unit in the field of agricultural biology in Vietnam’s atomic energy industry. Among them, radiation breeding is a field that has existed for a long time and developed to this day. mutagenic irradiation on flowers, decorative leaves and rare orchids fake cranes. Irradiation selects mutations The Center for Radiation Technology and Biotechnology (Nuclear Research Institute) is a unit that regularly applies radiation techniques to select and create mutant varieties on plants. Especially in the past time, the market Orchid and mutant bonsai is extremely vibrant, many customers have come to the center to irradiate to mutate plants. The irradiation process is quite quick, with the new technology Gama Cobalt irradiator, this process only takes about 1-2 minutes and is fully automatic. Immediately after, orchid seeds will be taken to the separation room to be cultured in nutrient solution for a certain time. After that, these plants were further isolated many times to select mutant morphologies different from the parent plant. Master Le Xuan Cuong, irradiation technician (Center for Radiation Technology and Biotechnology), said that the number of doses will vary depending on the sample provided by the customer such as tissue samples, branches, seedlings… “After irradiation, it will produce random mutations, beneficial or harmful, regardless of their will” – Master Cuong said. Currently, the Center’s Culture Room is storing many pseudo-crane orchid seedlings that have mutated on the stem and on the leaves. Specifically, the color of leaves and stems have turned white or purple. These are mutant forms that can be seen immediately, for flower color, you have to wait for the plant to grow and flower as usual to know. A seedling of the false crane orchid has had a leaf color mutation, and the stem has turned white or purple. (Photo: Nguyen Dung/VNA) According to Mr. Le Van Thuc, Deputy Director of the Center for Radiation Technology and Biotechnology, for flower plants, by irradiation techniques, it is possible to select flower colors or select traits that are resistant to adverse conditions. environmental benefits such as preventing fungal and bacterial diseases on plants. “Compared to natural mutations, the probability is one in a thousand or one million, but using radioactive sources to cause mutations in plants will have a higher probability of hundreds, thousands of times,” – Mr. Thuc analyzed. Application on many plant varieties Not only orchids, the Center for Radiation Technology and Biotechnology has tested irradiation to cause mutations on Forget-me-not Da Lat flowers, Torenia flowers, and Dendrobium orchids. The results have created many mutant lines in flower color and stem and leaf structure with great differences compared to the mother plant. Through that, the Center has built up the basic processes of radiation breeding; selection of materials for irradiation, frequency of irradiation, propagation, experimental planting to screen for mutations at phenotypic level, identification of mutant lines at molecular level… Technicians of the Center for Radiation Technology and Biotechnology (Nuclear Research Institute, based in Da Lat city, Lam Dong) next to a radioactive projector that causes mutations in plants. (Photo: Nguyen Dung/VNA) According to Mr. Le Van Thuc, the Center’s orientation will continue to promote the field of plant biotechnology and plant breeding, rapid multiplication of plant varieties and conservation of valuable plant genetic resources; continue to develop radiation technology in the selection and breeding of key plant varieties, endemic varieties of Lam Dong province, focusing on selecting and creating new quality varieties on flower, fruit, ornamental and medicinal plants. Currently, the Nuclear Research Institute has used irradiation techniques combined with In-vitro methods, applying in vitro flowering techniques to quickly select flower color mutations, shortening the selection time. filtering, reducing the cost of isolating mutant lines that previously had to be planted in the field for selection. At the same time, the Institute cooperates with many units throughout the country such as the Southern Fruit Institute, the Mekong Delta Rice Institute, the Central Highlands Agro-Forestry Research Institute, universities: Tra Vinh University, the University of Da Lat… to handle mutant irradiation on many different crops. Mr. Do Minh Ngoc, Deputy Director of Provincial Department of Science and Technology Lam Dong Irradiation is a tool and a technological solution for breeding that many parts of the world have implemented. However, the selection and maintenance of mutant traits is very important and requires time and experience, for these plants to become a source of seeds for other production industries.