2019年CRI Yuan Longping：Father of Hybrid Rice

 

The Medal of the Republic is the country's highest honor given to prominent figures who have made great contributions to the construction and the development of the People's Republic of China.CRI's Guo Yan brings you the story of one of the recipients¹ of the medal, Chinese agricultural expert Yuan Longping who is revered² as the "father of hybrid³ rice."

Yuan Longping is renowned⁴ for his tireless work in the fight against starvation and helped to meet the world's demand for rice by promoting technologies of hybrid rice.

"How to feed the world is a serious challenge facing us because the population grows every year. The only way is to enhance yields of crops through the advances of science and technology in many ways."

Professor Yuan Longping is widely acknowledged as the first person to discover how to achieve heterosis in rice. Rice is a self-pollinating plant. Because of this trait, it was long assumed that developing a hybrid variety was not possible. But Yuan's work proved differently.

"I have published an article of my theory. I was confident that heterosis is a universal phenomenon and rice is no exception. "

After decades of painstaking⁵ researches and intensive testing, Yuan and his team developed the world's first hybrid rice in 1974. In years that followed, his work set multiple world records in hybrid rice yield.

The latest variety in some pilot rice fields has reported a record of nearly 18 tons per hectare.

Yuan's research has helped increase food supply for China where 60 percent of the population depend on rice as a staple⁶ food. China has been facing a daunting⁷ challenge to feed over 20 percent of the world's population with only seven percent of the world's arable⁸ land. Increasing the output of rice has been the country's major concern since the 1960s when many Chinese suffered from starvation.

"A grain of rice can save a country or knock down a country. Food supply is critically important for a country. In the 1960s, I experienced a hard time when many people starved to death during a famine. Now we are no longer faced with such a severe situation, we still have 1.4 billion people to feed, which makes food supply a critical concern."

Sad memories of starvation from his childhood have set him on an odyssey⁹ to increase high-yield rice. But this has been an arduous¹⁰ journey for professor Yuan and his team.

"I officially kicked off my research in 1964 and there was hardly any real progress until 1973. There were numerous failures in the first eight years. In the 1960s, during the cultural revolution, the conditions for experiments were awful. Many only survived on little food. We eked¹¹ out a living by doing farm work on our own in Hainan island."

Yuan relentlessly¹² tested new breeding approaches even when his experiments seemed not to be yielding positive results for years. His colleagues and students say Yuan has helped them steer¹³ through difficulties and doubts.

"Some traits of the sample rice just couldn't sustain in reproduction."

"The experiments should be conducted under the law of natural science and undergo failures. The road to success is not smooth at all. We have to face failures again and again."

"Thanks to Yuan's persistence¹⁴, we finally managed to stick to our experiments and researches."

Yuan continued his scientific work as Director-General of the China National Hybrid Rice Research and Development Center in Changsha, Hunan Province.Together with his team, the rice breeder has been dedicated¹⁵ to developing super hybrid rice, boasting remarkably¹⁶ high yields and better quality.

Yuan has received numerous national and international prizes and awards for his lifelong work to eradicate¹⁷ hunger. In 2004, Yuan Longping received the World Food Prize for his breakthrough achievement in developing technologies essential for breeding high-yielding hybrid rice varieties. In 2017, he was elected academician of the US national Academy of Sciences.

His pioneering research has not only helped enhance food security in China, but has helped transform the world. Rice farmers from various countries have benefited from his work.Yuan and his team have planted their hybrid rice in Africa, helping¹⁸ countries such as Liberia develop productive and resilient rice crops.

"It's my great pleasure to help other developing countries develop hybrid rice to solve, to overcome their food shortage problems. I am confident that through our joint¹⁹ efforts the purpose will be realized in the near future."

A Liberian deputy agricultural minister says she hopes the hybrid techniques will help resolve their food problems.

"Liberians' daily consumption is rice. We import 60 percent of the rice we consume, about a hundred million dollars a year. So being introduced to the research and development of hybrid rice in Liberia is so promising²⁰ and we look forward to solving our food insecurity problem."

With years of efforts and the hybrid techniques, the yields have been more than tripled, rising from 3 tonnes per hectare to nearly 11 tonnes in multiple African countries such as Madagascar.

Yuan Longping hopes the techniques of planting hybrid rice can not only help lift people out of the threat of famine, but also help local farmers get higher incomes. The 89-year-old Chinese scientist has not yet retired²¹ from his dream to pursue higher yields of rice. Now Yuan and his team have worked on the research to yield more rice in saline environments, so as to further increase food supply for the country.

They have set up the country's first cold region breeding station for sea rice in the northeast Province of Heilongjiang.

The breeding station was established in Tieli, a city located at high altitude with one of the world's three major tracts²² of soda²³ saline-alkali land.

The program will help meet the needs of rice-growing areas in the northeastern provinces and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous²⁴ Region, said scientists from the Qingdao Saline-Alkali Tolerant Rice Research and Development Center, who built the breeding station.

1 recipients   

adj.接受的；受领的；容纳的；愿意接受的n.收件人；接受者；受领者；接受器

参考例句：

• The recipients of the prizes had their names printed in the paper. 获奖者的姓名登在报上。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The recipients of prizes had their names printed in the paper. 获奖者名单登在报上。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

2 revered   

v.崇敬，尊崇，敬畏( revere的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• A number of institutions revered and respected in earlier times have become Aunt Sally for the present generation. 一些早年受到尊崇的惯例，现在已经成了这代人嘲弄的对象了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Chinese revered corn as a gift from heaven. 中国人将谷物奉为上天的恩赐。 来自辞典例句

3 hybrid   

n.(动，植）杂种，混合物

参考例句：

• That is a hybrid perpetual rose.那是一株杂交的四季开花的蔷薇。
• The hybrid was tall,handsome,and intelligent.那混血儿高大、英俊、又聪明。

4 renowned   

adj.著名的，有名望的，声誉鹊起的

参考例句：

• He is one of the world's renowned writers.他是世界上知名的作家之一。
• She is renowned for her advocacy of human rights.她以提倡人权而闻名。

5 painstaking   

adj.苦干的；艰苦的，费力的，刻苦的

参考例句：

• She is not very clever but she is painstaking.她并不很聪明，但肯下苦功夫。
• Through years of our painstaking efforts,we have at last achieved what we have today.大家经过多少年的努力，才取得今天的成绩。

6 staple   

n.主要产物，常用品，主要要素，原料，订书钉，钩环；adj.主要的，重要的；vt.分类

参考例句：

• Tea is the staple crop here.本地产品以茶叶为大宗。
• Potatoes are the staple of their diet.土豆是他们的主要食品。

7 daunting   

adj.使人畏缩的

参考例句：

• They were faced with the daunting task of restoring the house.他们面临着修复房子的艰巨任务。
• Starting a new job can be a daunting prospect.开始一项新工作有时会让人望而却步。

8 arable   

adj.可耕的，适合种植的

参考例句：

• The terrain changed quickly from arable land to desert.那个地带很快就从耕地变成了沙漠。
• Do you know how much arable land has been desolated?你知道什么每年有多少土地荒漠化吗？

9 odyssey   

n.长途冒险旅行；一连串的冒险

参考例句：

• The march to Travnik was the final stretch of a 16-hour odyssey.去特拉夫尼克的这段路是长达16小时艰险旅行的最后一程。
• His odyssey of passion, friendship,love,and revenge was now finished.他的热情、友谊、爱情和复仇的漫长历程，到此结束了。

10 arduous   

adj.艰苦的，费力的，陡峭的

参考例句：

• We must have patience in doing arduous work.我们做艰苦的工作要有耐性。
• The task was more arduous than he had calculated.这项任务比他所估计的要艰巨得多。

11 eked   

v.（靠节省用量）使…的供应持久( eke的过去式和过去分词 )；节约使用；竭力维持生计；勉强度日

参考例句：

• She eked out the stew to make another meal. 她省出一些钝菜再做一顿饭。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She eked out her small income by washing clothes for other people. 她替人洗衣以贴补微薄的收入。 来自辞典例句

12 relentlessly   

adv.不屈不挠地；残酷地；不间断

参考例句：

• The African sun beat relentlessly down on his aching head. 非洲的太阳无情地照射在他那发痛的头上。
• He pursued her relentlessly, refusing to take 'no' for an answer. 他锲而不舍地追求她，拒不接受“不”的回答。

13 steer   

vt.驾驶，为…操舵；引导；vi.驾驶

参考例句：

• If you push the car, I'll steer it.如果你来推车，我就来驾车。
• It's no use trying to steer the boy into a course of action that suits you.想说服这孩子按你的方式行事是徒劳的。

14 persistence   

n.坚持，持续，存留

参考例句：

• The persistence of a cough in his daughter puzzled him.他女儿持续的咳嗽把他难住了。
• He achieved success through dogged persistence.他靠着坚持不懈取得了成功。

15 dedicated   

adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的

参考例句：

• He dedicated his life to the cause of education.他献身于教育事业。
• His whole energies are dedicated to improve the design.他的全部精力都放在改进这项设计上了。

16 remarkably   

ad.不同寻常地，相当地

参考例句：

• I thought she was remarkably restrained in the circumstances. 我认为她在那种情况下非常克制。
• He made a remarkably swift recovery. 他康复得相当快。

17 eradicate   

v.根除，消灭，杜绝

参考例句：

• These insects are very difficult to eradicate.这些昆虫很难根除。
• They are already battling to eradicate illnesses such as malaria and tetanus.他们已经在努力消灭疟疾、破伤风等疾病。

18 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

19 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

20 promising   

adj.有希望的，有前途的

参考例句：

• The results of the experiments are very promising.实验的结果充满了希望。
• We're trying to bring along one or two promising young swimmers.我们正设法培养出一两名有前途的年轻游泳选手。

21 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

22 tracts   

大片土地( tract的名词复数 )； 地带； （体内的）道； （尤指宣扬宗教、伦理或政治的）短文

参考例句：

• vast tracts of forest 大片大片的森林
• There are tracts of desert in Australia. 澳大利亚有大片沙漠。

23 soda   

n.苏打水；汽水

参考例句：

• She doesn't enjoy drinking chocolate soda.她不喜欢喝巧克力汽水。
• I will freshen your drink with more soda and ice cubes.我给你的饮料重加一些苏打水和冰块。

24 autonomous   

adj.自治的；独立的

参考例句：

• They proudly declared themselves part of a new autonomous province.他们自豪地宣布成为新自治省的一部分。
• This is a matter that comes within the jurisdiction of the autonomous region.这件事是属于自治区权限以内的事务。