The Chinese government and a number of Chinese scientists adopted the Soviet school of thought.
Yuan pushed to share them with the world.
Back in the late 1990s, when the government provided policy support to private seed companies in Bangladesh to go for hybrid rice seed imports, it earned the government lots of criticism.
In front of Mingyangshan Funeral Home, more than 100,000 people lined up in the rain to lay flowers in memory of Yuan Longping, a renowned Chinese agronomist dubbed the "father of hybrid rice.
Greatly encouraged, he began to study the elements of this particular type.
Translated by Zhao, Kuangli; Zhao, Baohua.