A witness to famine, 'father of hybrid rice' helped feed a nation

In 1960, as famine swept the mainland at the height of the Great Leap Forward, a young agricultural researcher, Yuan Longping, hit upon an idea that had the potential to put an end to hunger.

A new kind of rice, Yuan hoped, could grow more quickly, produce a greater yield of grain and, importantly in a country with a shortage of arable land, survive in tougher, drier conditions. He began working on the problem in earnest four years later, but it took him until 1973 to make a breakthrough. Tests of his new indica hybrid strain led to its commercial introduction in 1976. Over the following decade it increased the country's annual rice yield by 100 million tonnes.

Today, about half of the rice grown on mainland fields is Yuan's hybrid strain, but it accounts for some 60 per cent of the total yield. The agricultural revolution brought about by his discovery turned Yuan into a national hero - earning him the title 'father of hybrid rice' - and the 79-year-old remains a revered figure.

When he returned to his alma mater, Chongqing's Southwest Agricultural University, in April, he was mobbed by thousands of adoring students.

Yuan, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering who has four minor planets named after him, comes from humble beginnings. He was born in Qianyang, Hunan province, in 1930, the second of five brothers in a poor farming family. He developed his thirst for learning early, and was fascinated by the natural world.

Earlier this year, he told a press conference how even in primary school he had been inspired to observe plants and flowers to learn about things that were not taught in his school textbooks.