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A PIONEER FOR ALL PEOPLE
Although he is one of China's most
famous scientists, Yuan Longping considers
himself a farmer, for he works the land
to do his research. Indeed, his sunburnt face
and arms and his slim, strong body are
just like those of millions of Chinese farmers,
for whom he has struggled for the past
five decades. Dr Yuan Longping grows what
is called super hybrid rice. In 1974,
he became the first agricultural pioneer in the
world
to
grow
rice
that
has
a
high
output.
This
special
strain
of
rice
makes
it
possible
to produce one-third more of the crop in the same
fields. Now more than
60% of the rice
produced in China each year is from this hybrid
strain.
Born
into
a
poor
farmer's
family
in
1930,
Dr
Yuan
graduated
from
Southwest
Agricultural College in 1953. Since
then, finding ways to grow more rice has been
his life goal. As a young man, he saw
the great need for increasing the rice output.
At that time, hunger was a disturbing
problem in many parts of the countryside. Dr
Yuan searched
for a way to
increase rice harvests without expanding the area
of
the fields. In 1950, Chinese farmers
could produce only fifty million tons of rice. In
a
recent
harvest,
however,
nearly
two
hundred
million
tons
of
rice
was
produced.
These increased
harvests mean that 22% of the world's people are
fed from just 7%
of the farmland in
China. Dr Yuan is now circulating his knowledge in
India, Vietnam
and many other less
developed countries to increase their rice
harvests. Thanks to
his research, the
UN has more tools in the battle to rid the world
of hunger. Using
his hybrid rice,
farmers are producing harvests twice as large as
before.
Dr
Yuan
is quite
satisfied
with
his
life.
However,
he doesn't
care about being
famous.
He
feels
it
gives
him
less
freedom
to
do
his
research.
He
would
much
rather
keep
time
for
his
hobbles.
He
enjoys
listening
to
violin
music,
playing
mah-jong,
swimming
and
reading.
Spending
money
on
himself
or
leading
a
comfortable life also means very little
to him. Indeed, he believes that a person with
too much money has more rather than
fewer troubles. He therefore gives millions of
yuan to equip others for their research
in agriculture.
Just
dreaming
for
things,
however,
costs
nothing.
Long
ago
Dr
yuan
had
a
dream about rice plants as tall as
sorghum. Each ear of rice was as big as an ear of
corn
and
each
grain
of
rice
was
as
huge
as
a
peanut.
Dr
Yuan
awoke
from
his
dream
with the hope of producing a kind of rice that
could feed more people. Now,
many years
later, Dr Yuan has another dream: to export his
rice so that it can be
grown around the
globe. One dream is not always enough, especially
for a person
who loves and cares for
his people.