Chinese scientist YUAN Longping, renowned for developing the first hybrid rice strain that relieved countless people of hunger, died of organ failure at 91. At present, as much as 50 percent of China’s total number of paddy fields grow Yuan Longping’s hybrid rice species and yield 60 percent of the total rice production in China. China’s total rice output rose from 56.9 million tons in 1950 to 194.7 million tons in 2017.

Hybrid rice has since been grown in dozens of countries in Africa, America, and Asia—boosting food security and providing a robust food source in areas which where menaced by famines.

Xinhua, May 24, 2021

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