The Silk Road Journal – by Mahika Ming

World renowned Chinese agronomist Yuan Longping who developed the first hybrid rice strains passed away in the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) at 91 few days ago. Just the way we dubbed late Prime Minister Dudley Senanayaka as the “Father who gave rice - Bath dun piya”(probably received from China as a result of the Rubber Rice pact), Yuan was  dubbed as the "father of hybrid rice" in the PRC.

One main reason for the Chinese revolution according to many was famine. The grassroots were in extreme poverty at the time when the PRC was established in 1949. It took them 70 years to eradicate poverty in China and in that struggle Yuan’s name will be written in gold. He was awarded the "Medal of the Republic," the highest honor in the PRC, for his contribution to strengthen global food supply chains. His invention is still helping China to feed nearly 20% of the planet’s population (population of PRC) utilizing only 7% of the planet’s fertile land.

Yuan successfully cultivated first high-yielding hybrid rice in 1973 for the first time in the world. His product could reach a yield of over 500 KG per approx. 0.067 hectare from the 300 KG before. Back in 1996, PRC authorities established the super rice breeding program and within 48 months they achieved the 10.5 tonnes per hectare target but broke their own record thrice after the year 2000 with 12 tonnes (2004), 13.5 tonnes (2011) and 15 tonnes (2014) per hectare respectively. As in Sri Lanka, rice is the primary grain of a larger percentage of its 1.4 billion population in the PRC. By now the total cultivating area of hybrid rice in the PRC has grown to 16 million hectares which can produce to feed a population four times the population of Sri Lanka per year in addition to feeding the rice consumers in the PRC.

The one time school teacher from Hunan was referred to by some as the “Chair warmer” when he was so focused on his new invention. In 1973 he was able to prove that his chair warming has helped his critiques to be better chair warmers as the staple food supply was ensured with his invention. Yuan has had two dreams; one to grow hybrid rice all over the world to eradicate global hunger and to rest under rice crops taller than men. His name will stand tall as long as people stay away from hunger. He may once again become a chair warmer in heaven for a long time for his service to mankind. 

The writer is an analyst with interests in the financial and sustainable development sectors with postgraduate exposure in the Far East (mahika.ming@gmail.com).