Norman Borlaug, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for his work in global agriculture, presents the World Food Prize to Yuan Longping on Oct 4, 2004, at the Iowa State Capitol Building. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Yuan Longping, the "Father of Hybrid Rice" who passed away on Saturday at 91, will be long remembered as one of the "most laudable leaders" who helped feed the world, the World Food Prize Foundation, which honored the Chinese scientist 17 years ago, said.

Yuan was a co-winner of the 2004 World Food Prize, the top international honor recognizing the feats of individuals who have advanced human development by improving the quality, quantity or availability of food in the world. Yuan shared it with Monty Jones, an African rice breeder.

Yuan received the honor for his "breakthrough achievement" in developing the genetic materials and technologies essential for breeding high-yielding hybrid rice varieties, and his "pioneering research" has helped transform China from food deficiency to food security within three decades, according to an earlier statement released by the WFP.

Barbara Stinson, president of the WFP Foundation, said Yuan was credited not only for hybrid rice, but also for the ability to then shift land base out of rice production and into other kinds of food production, including fish ponds, other fruits and vegetables, increasing the nutritional content of food in China, and thereby contributing to the reduction of hunger and poverty as well.

In particular, the generosity of the leading scientist in making his technology available to the world is profound in ending world hunger, Stinson said.

Yuan started hybrid rice research in 1964 and succeeded in cultivating the world's first high-yield hybrid rice strain in 1973.

In China the annual planting area of hybrid rice has now exceeded 16 million hectares, or 57 percent of the total planting area of rice, helping feed an extra 80 million people a year in a country where rice is a staple for the majority population, Xinhua reported.

Its annual growth area has reached 8 million hectares in countries including India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Brazil and the US, with each hectare on average producing about 2 tons more grain than the local strains do, the China National Hybrid Rice Research and Development Center in Changsha said in a statement on Saturday.

"He's made such a powerful contribution, he is one of our most laudable leaders," Stinson told China Daily. "Professor Yuan will be long remembered."

For more than a decade, the World Food Prize Foundation has placed young US agriculture students on Borlaug-Ruan International Internships in the China national hybrid rice development center in Changsha, China, of which Yuan had been the general director.

Kenneth M. Quinn, then president of the World Food Prize, meets with Yuan Longping in Sanya, Hainan province in April 2019. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Stinson said she expected the US-China cooperative program will resume in-person after having run it virtually since last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"It's my hope to continue this long-standing, powerful relationship between the World Food Prize Foundation and many in China, many researchers and leaders in China," she said, adding the foundation has considered the partnership "very much" part of Yuan's legacy.

Kenneth M. Quinn, president emeritus of the World Food Prize, who has known Yuan for more than two decades, said the first person to alert him about Yuan's passing was a tourist agency staff member from Sanya, Hainan province, who sent him a WeChat message with a sobbing mime.

"With the passing of Professor Yuan Longping, China and the World have lost one the greatest agricultural scientists on our planet, and I have lost a great friend," Quinn told China Daily.

"I think, 100 years from now, people will still be talking about Yuan Longping in China, and in the world," Quinn said. "That's how significant his achievements were."

Quinn, president of WFP Foundation between 2000 and early 2020, said that when Yuan came to Des Moines, Iowa, for the 2004 World Food Prize, he went to the airport to pick him up.

"I was distracted by a call, and when I turned around, Professor Yuan was gone – he was surrounded by Chinese Americans, who had all come to meet him as well."

Quinn would learn during his travels around China that everyone in China knew who Yuan was and what he had done.

"On every occasion, every person I spoke with - - servers in restaurants in Shenzhen, hotel staff in Shijiazhuang and refreshment purveyors on the High Speed trains -- all knew his name and that Yuan Longping had made amazing accomplishments in rice production," he said.

Quinn would draw the similarities between Yuan and Dr Norman Borlaug, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970, for his work in global agriculture, who created the World Food Prize. Quinn had worked and made friends with both men.

Yuan Longping poses with Hannah Cox, a student on Borlaug-Ruan International Internships in 2007. [File photo provided by World Food Prize Foundation]

"Like Dr Borlaug, Professor Yuan was incredibly humble, never seeking fame or adulation, rather focused only on hard work and results that could help eradicate poverty and uplift people out of hunger," Quinn said.

In addition, Yuan similarly believed deeply in the power of science as the multiplier of the harvest. Using research and trials at his national center, he continued up until his final days to produce increasingly higher yielding super - hybrid plants, with panicles so filled with grain that they bend over giving the appearance of a "waterfall of rice", Quinn noted.

Reflecting his achievements that were developed in rice paddies closely observing and improving plants just as Chinese farmers do, Yuan always maintained a "down to earth" attitude, Quinn said in a statement made available to China Daily.

"He always seemed more at home in a farm field than an office, and was most comfortable in his working clothes, just as Norman Borlaug was," Quinn said.

Yuan was also a teacher, always ready to answer questions and especially to speak with young scientists and students, according to Quinn.

"The American high school student we sent to his research center each year always returned filled with knowledge and a deep desire to learn more," Quinn said.

Quinn, also vice-chairman of the International Rice Development Forum that Yuan created, said Yuan had been an inspirational figure just like Borlaug.

Addressing a four-day US-China Agriculture Roundtable sponsored by the US Heartland China Association from March 23, Quinn invoked the accomplishments of Yuan to inspire all of the participants in the symposium.

"Professor Yuan Longping, who was truly beloved in his country and by all of us who knew him, will be greatly missed," Quinn said in the statement.

"His legacy will provide inspiration to generations far into the future, in China and across the world."