A Pioneer for all People
Though he was one of China's most famous scientists, Yuan Longping considered himself a farmer, because he worked the land to do his research.
Known as “Father of Hybrid Rice (杂交水稻)”, Dr Yuan graduated from Southwest Agricultural (农业的) College in 1953. From then on, finding ways to grow more rice was his life goal. As a young man, he saw the great need for increasing the rice production. At that time, hunger was a serious problem in many parts of the countryside. Dr Yuan searched for a way to get more rice with the same size of the fields. In 1974, he became an agricultural pioneer in the world to grow rice that has high production and that is called super hybrid rice. In the 1980s, he went around the world and gave advice about growing rice to farmers in other countries. In 2004, he won the World Food Prize for his work.
Dr Yuan was quite satisfied with his life. He would much rather keep time for his hobbies. He enjoyed playing the violin, swimming and reading. Spending money on himself meant very little to him, so he gave millions of yuan to help some researchers with their research in farming.
Long ago Dr Yuan had a dream about rice plants as tall as sorghum (高粱) . With his hard work, he grew the rice that could feed more people. President Xi Jinping praised him for his great contributions (贡献) to China's food safety and world corn development.
