DM Monitoring
KATHMANDU: Amrit Prasad Poudel, a Nepalese researcher involved in developing new varieties of rice, had directly observed the dedication of Yuan Longping, known as “the father of hybrid rice,” to the research on hybrid rice technology.
Yuan, a Chinese scientist renowned for developing the first hybrid rice strain that relieved countless people of hunger, died of organ failure at 91 on Saturday.
Poudel was at the headquarters of Yuan Longping High-tech Agriculture Co., Ltd, a China-Based company, in 2018 for a two-week training, but Yuan did not attend the inauguration ceremony of the training program organized for Nepali agricultural scientists.
Yuan made an appearance for the training program on the third day, apologizing for his absence on the inaugural day, Poudel recalled.
“In fact, he failed to attend the training program on the inaugural day as he was busy in the paddy field selecting seeds,” said Poudel, an agronomist from the Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC) under the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development.
“It was a perfect example of how dedicated he was to research in the paddy field.”
For the training program, Yuan made a 25-minute speech about the importance of hybrid rice in increasing the productivity of rice and in feeding the growing population in the world, Poudel said.
“During a tea break, I could meet him personally and I was deeply impressed by his simplicity despite him being a world-renowned agro scientist.”
Poudel was sent to China for training under a three-year agricultural technical cooperation project that started in 2016 between the two countries. Under the project, the Chinese government helped Nepal promote the adoption of hybrid rice varieties and conduct technical demonstration and training on post-harvest processing technology, and farm machinery operation and maintenance technology, while Yuan Longping High-tech Agriculture Co., Ltd was chosen to work with the NARC to this end.
“About 45 hybrid rice varieties developed by the Chinese company were tested. Of them, three have been registered with the concerned authorities and have got approval to sell in the market,” said Poudel. “They were registered after they proved to be fit for Nepal’s climatic condition.” Ram Chandra Adhikari, director for planning and coordination at NARC, met with Yuan in 2016 during a week-long training program in Changsha, the capital of China’s Hunan Province.
Adhikari, too, was impressed with Yuan being “a simple person despite his fame.”
“I remember him saying to us that China’s food security would be at stake without hybrid rice, while suggesting Nepal adopting hybrid rice for its own food security.”
Nepal has been increasingly dependent on rice import in recent years, with rice worth 39 billion Nepali rupees, or 333 million U.S. dollars, imported during the first nine months of the current 2020-21 fiscal year that ends in mid-July. According to officials and scientists at NARC, Yuan was a “huge” inspiration for them in their efforts to develop and promote hybrid rice in the country.
