Yuan Longping was born in Beijing, China. He loves playing mahjong and erhu (Chinese violin), swimming and (motorcycle).
Born in 1930, Yuan graduated from the Southwest Agricultural College in 1953 and began his teaching career at an agriculture school in Anjiang, Hunan Province.
He came up with an idea for hybridizing rice in 1960s, when a series of natural disasters and inappropriate policies (plunge) China into an unprecedented (前所未有的) famine that caused many deaths.
Since then, he has devoted (he) to the research and development of a better rice breed.
In 1964, he happened to find a (nature) hybrid rice plant that had obvious advantages over others. Greatly encouraged, he began to study the elements of this particular type. In 1973, in cooperationothers, he was able to cultivate a type of hybrid rice species had great advantages. It yielded 20 per cent more per unit than of common ones. The next year their research made a breakthrough in seeding. They (succeed) developed a set of technologies for producing indica rice (籼稻), putting China in the lead worldwide in rice production.this achievement, he was dubbed (授予……称号) the "Father of Hybrid Rice".
