China’s "Father of Hybrid Rice" Yuan Longping, renowned for pioneering the development of the world's first hybrid rice varieties which significantly improved China's rice output and food security, died of illness at 91 on May 22^nd in Changsha, Hunan Province.

Yuan was not only awarded the Medal of the Republic, China's highest state honor, for his prominent contributions nationwide, but also 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 around the world.

Yuan first visited Sanya to do "Nanfan" (which refers to a method of breeding and seed selection of summer crops in south China after these crops' autumn harvests have already happened in their original region) hybrid rice breeding in 1968, where the Hainan National Breeding and Multiplication Base (sometimes translated as the Nanfan Base) has since been established and has become China’s valuable agricultural scientific research platform. Yuan stated that "Half of the credit for the success of hybrid rice should be attributed to the Nanfan Base.”

In the past 53 years, Yuan spent nearly every winter in Hainan working on research projects related to the breeding of better rice crops. In memory of Yuan, we would like to take today to go over some photos of his time spent working and living in Hainan.

Yuan Longping at work in Lizhigou, Sanya City in 1976. (Photo/Hainan Daily)

On the afternoon of March 29^th, 2004, Yuan Longping got involved in a chess game between some of his colleagues playing at the Hainan Base of the China National Hybrid Rice Research and Development Center (CNHRRDC) compound in Sanya. Arguing and laughing in his thick Hunan dialect, he felt that watching the game wasn’t enough and he helped one of the players move a piece. (Photo by Zhang Jie / Hainan Daily)

On the afternoon of March 29^th, 2004, Yuan Longping and his assistants were playing volleyball in the residential compound of the CNHRRDC Hainan Base. (Photo by Zhang Jie / Hainan Daily)

Starting in 1968, Yuan Longping came to the Hainan National Breeding and Multiplication Base almost every winter for research on the hybridization of new rice varietals. This photo shows Yuan and some of his colleagues during a progress check at a 100 mu (6 ha) test paddy in Sanya in March 2004. (Photo by Zhang Jie /Hainan Daily)

On April 15^th, 2004, Yuan Longping was photographed introducing his new achievements in rice breeding to scientific elites from all over the world at a paddy near Lizhigou in Sanya City. (Photo by Zhang Jie /Hainan Daily)

On March 31^st, 2004, Yuan Longping and his baby granddaughter were photographed playing on the beach at Sanya Bay. (Photo by Zhang Jie /Hainan Daily)

On April 1^st, 2004, Yuan Longping and some of his colleagues were photographed during a progress check at a 100 mu (6 ha) test paddy in Sanya. (Photo by Zhang Jie /Hainan Daily)

On April 18^th, 2004, Yuan Longping was photographed being honored by Sanya City as an “honorary citizen”. (Photo by Zhang Jie /Hainan Daily)

On April 15^th, 2009, Yuan Longping was photographed in Haikou at the Provincial People’s Government Advisory Committee Science and Technology Advisory Commission. (Photo by Song Guoqiang /Hainan Daily)

On March 22^nd, 2015, Yuan Longping was photographed inspecting the growth of new varieties of hybrid rice at the base of Longping High-Tech Agriculture Co., Ltd. near Yalong Bay, Sanya. (Photo by Wu Wei /Hainan Daily)

On April 9^th, 2015, Yuan Longping was photographed at a paddy in Sanya carefully inspecting the growth of hybrid rice varietal "Chaoyouqian", which was on target to reach a yield of 16 tons per hectare (1067 kg per mu), and was expected to become the highest yield hybrid rice in human history. (Photo by Su Jianqiang /Hainan Daily)

On April 17^th, 2015, Academician Yuan Longping of the Chinese Academy of Engineering took a group photo with 15 trainees from five south Asian countries who attended a 30-day hybrid rice breeding course in Sanya. (Photo by Cheng Fanga /Hainan Daily)

On April 17^th, 2018, Chinese Academy of Engineering Academician Yuan Longping gave a speech at the 2nd China (Sanya) International Rice Forum, which attracted approximately 500 domestic and foreign attendees to discuss ongoing developments in the field of rice breeding, how to jointly promote applications of new technology and how to jointly share achievements. (Photo by Wu Wei /Hainan Daily)

On April 11^th, 2019, Yuan Longping as an academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering was photographed giving a speech on the topic of the development of rice varietals at the opening of the 3rd China (Sanya) International Rice Forum and the 1st International Rice Expo. (Photo by Wu Wei /Hainan Daily)