Chongqing university honors hybrid rice pioneer Yuan Longping

Ahead of its 120th anniversary, Chongqing's Southwest University inaugurated a new museum complex on Tuesday, featuring a memorial hall dedicated to the revered agronomist Yuan Longping (1930-2021).

Yuan was an agronomy graduate from the university. He began researching hybrid rice in 1964 and cultivated the world's first high-yield strain in 1973. His life's work helped China feed nearly one-fifth of the world's population with less than 9 percent of the planet's total arable land.