BEIJING, May 30 -- An unusual honor awaits the country's most famous "farmer" as the rice field where he developed his hybrid rice is to be named a national cultural relic site after him.

    Yuan Longping worked in the Anjiang School of Agriculture in Hunan province to develop the high-yielding strain of rice.

    Confirming the news, Shan Jixiang, director of China State Administration about Cultural Heritage (SACH), said: "When people talk of cultural relics, they usually relate them to something ancient."

    "But since China has undergone rapid changes in the past three decades, any place or institution that helped that transformation can be a cultural relic And the farm where Yuan grew his hybrid rice is one of the best examples of such a place."

    "Along with the rice field, the school, too, is likely to be listed as a cultural relic site," said Xiao Dong, a researcher with China Academy of Cultural Heritage.

    "After the recognition comes through, we plan to transform the school into an international center for hybrid rice agriculture to keep alive its tradition, as well as to pay tribute to Yuan's great contribution."

    The "father of hybrid rice" crossed different strains of paddy in the 1960s and 1970s to come up with a variety that increased the yield by up to three times at a time when the country's exploding population was raising fears of food shortage.

    Today, hybrid rice is grown in about 60 percent of the country's rice fields, yielding 70 percent of the total output. Yuan's hybrid rice is grown across Asia, Africa and the Americas, too.

    The 79-year-old agricultural scientist is still working. His aim is to increase rice yield per mu (one-fifteenth of a hectare) to 900 kg by 2015. The per mu yield in the 1950s was 300 kg, rising to 700 kg in the 1970s and 800 kg in the 1980s.

    "By 2020, when I will be 90 years old, we hope to get 1,500 kg of rice per mu," he said.

    Yuan was back in media limelight in March, when a film on his life was released across the country.

    The biopic not only features his scientific work, but also his relationship with his wife of 46 years, with who he is still deeply in love.

    The film was shot on the Anjiang School of Agriculture's campus, where Yuan worked as a teacher and researcher from 1953 to 1972.

    The school is now used only for research. Some scientists who worked with Yuan still work there and a two-story building where he stayed while visiting the farm stands on the campus.

    Most scientists are driven by a childhood dream. Yuan, who was born into a poor family, used to dream of cultivating rice as big as a peanut. Though that may still be a dream, we can still compare the value of three grains of rice against one.

    (Source: China Daily)