Bidding farewell to 'father of hybrid rice'

Yuan was awarded the Medal of the Republic in September 2019, among the many honors he received at home and abroad. He was also an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and director of the China National Hybrid Rice Research and Development Center.

The generosity of Yuan, and other researchers, in making their breakthroughs available to the world has been profoundly important in efforts to end global hunger, said Barbara Stinson, president of the United States-based World Food Prize Foundation, which awarded Yuan the 2004 World Food Prize, the top international honor for people who have improved the quality, quantity or availability of food globally.

The UN said in a post on its Sina Weibo account on Saturday that Yuan made outstanding contributions to boosting food security, eradicating poverty and improving people's livelihoods.

A daughter-in-law of Yuan, surnamed Gan, told Xinhua News Agency that Yuan did not leave any last words, but when he was still able to speak, he kept mentioning hybrid rice and hoped that his students would develop well and promote the crop.

On Sunday, tens of thousands of people came to say goodbye to Yuan.

At the Xiangya Hospital main gate on Saturday, in addition to numerous bouquets, people left three bunches of rice plants in memory of Yuan, who solved the problem of food for millions of people not only in China but around the world.