What do young Chinese people say about the father of hybrid rice?

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…

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.