Father of hybrid rice celebrates 90th birthday on lunar calendar

FROM HAVING ENOUGH TO EAT TO EATING WELL

Now the focus of Yuan's hybrid rice project has changed from increasing output to green and sustainable development.

In September 2017, a strain of low-cadmium indica rice developed by Yuan's team and the Hunan provincial academy of agricultural sciences was able to reduce the average amount of cadmium in rice by more than 90 percent in areas suffering from heavy metal pollution.

He is currently working on the third generation of hybrid rice.