China mourns 'father of hybrid rice'

Shortly after news broke of scientist Yuan Longping's death on Saturday, much of the Chinese Internet erupted in collective grief to mourn the death of the man known as China's "father of hybrid rice".

His discovery of the high-yield crop has been widely credited with alleviating famine and poverty in parts of Asia and Africa.

According to the state-run People's Daily, the cause of death was multiple organ failure. He was 90. Professor Yuan had been unwell since a fall during a visit to a rice planting site in Hainan in March, where he also had a research base.

He made two major discoveries in hybrid rice cultivation that have formed the basis of most modern techniques still being used today, said Dr Jauhar Ali, senior scientist for hybrid rice breeding at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI).

In a bid to create more productive rice crops, Prof Yuan thought to search for wild varieties that could be cross-bred with commercial strains. He struck gold in 1970 when he found a wild rice specimen by a railroad track in Hainan.

With rice being the main grain for half of the world, Prof Yuan's discoveries, along with breakthroughs in wheat cultivation by American plant scientist Norman Borlaug, led to the Green Revolution, which saw increased crop yields and an end to famine in most of the world.

After news of his death broke on Saturday afternoon, crowds gathered outside the Hunan Hybrid Rice Research Centre in Changsha in Hunan province where Prof Yuan worked.

Social media footage also showed well-wishers lining the streets as his hearse drove by, while the police had to disperse crowds gathered outside the funeral home where his body was kept.

Before a memorial service on Monday, nearly 20,000 mourners of all ages filed past his body in Changsha where it lay covered in a Chinese flag - the highest civilian honour possible. Many were seen holding white and yellow chrysanthemums - a symbol of mourning - with some in tears.

Many Chinese regard him as a superstar because of his research on rice, a staple of the country. He wrote in his memoir that much of his motivation came from seeing the horrors of the Great Leap Forward in the 1950s - a disastrous plan to drive up collective agricultural and steel production that resulted in the worst famine in modern times, killing tens of millions.

Prof Yuan wrote that he felt even more driven to commit to the field after seeing bodies of people who died of starvation and others who ate tree bark to quell their hunger.

The damage to arable land, caused by over-planting, lasted for decades.

Marketing manager Cindy Xu, 46, said she teared up while watching a tribute programme on him on Sunday evening.

"For many of us, we grew up knowing what it was like to worry about not having enough to eat, so I'm very grateful that he helped change our lives with something as simple as growing rice," she told The Straits Times.

China's President Xi Jinping and other state leaders also sent messages of condolences, an honour usually reserved for former senior party cadres.

Hybrid rice refers to a grain that has been bred from two different rice parents.

Traditionally, commercially grown rice is inbred but tends to have lower yields which, when planted in unproductive soil, can have decreased yields leading to famines.

In 1972, Professor Yuan Longping discovered a variety of wild rice by a railway track in tropical Hainan island.

This was crossbred with commercial varieties of rice that resulted in a strain that was male sterile which, when crossbred a second time, produced a rice strain that was of higher yield than regular rice.

Scientists estimate that hybrid rice varieties result in a higher yield of between 25 per cent and 30 per cent, which allows farmers to earn at least US$200 (S$265) per hectare.

Such crops are being cultivated in much of Asia, including at least half of China's padi fields, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

On Monday, the hashtag "I think of you when winds blow across the padi fields", a reference to Prof Yuan's work, was the top pinned item on Weibo, with 150 million views.

The top hashtag, with 450 million views, was "wife tearfully bids farewell to Yuan Longping", showing clips of Prof Yuan's wife, Madam Deng Zhe, sobbing as she was wheeled past his body.

Dr Ali of the IRRI first worked with Prof Yuan in Hyderabad, India, in 1990, when the Chinese team visited to demonstrate their growing and rice breeding techniques.

"He was very modest, humble and down to earth. He has influenced many people, and definitely has fans everywhere. Much of what we do now at IRRI would be impossible if not for his previous work."