On May 22, 2021, the whole nation was saddened by the news that Chinese scientist Yuan Longping died.
Dr Yuan Longping worked most of his life growing better rice. As a result of his research, the Chinese people are no longer worried about getting starved. His great work also helped the world produce more and more rice.
Yuan, born on Sept. 7, 1930. After graduating (毕业.) from Southwest Agriculture College, he worked as a teacher at an agriculture school in Hunan.
Several natural disasters (天灾) hit China in the 1960s. Yuan, saw many people die of hunger every day. Since then, he has researched how to grow much better crops.
In 1964 , he happened to find a natural hybrid rice (杂交水稻) plant that had great advantages over others. Yuan was excited about his discovery. He then began to study the parts of this unusual plant.
In 1973, he started to develop a type of hybrid rice species (种类) . It produced 20% more rice per unit than common ones. The seeding (种植) was very successful in the following year. This progress made China the world's leader in rice production.
More than 50% of China's total rice fields grow Yuan's hybrid species. People call him the "Father of Hybrid Rice".
Yuan once said he had two dreams — to "enjoy the cool under the rice crops taller than men" and that hybrid rice could be grown all over the world to help solve the food problem of the whole world.
