With Hybrid Rice Producing 20% More, Prof Yuan Longping Indeed Put An End To Chinese Hunger – But Missed His Chance To Save The World And Simultaneously Put An End To Farmer Poverty!

You have to be wholistic in your approach in trying to solve “a farmer problem” – you cannot isolate the farmer from society!

Morning today, Sunday, 11 Aug 2024, I saw the Facebook post sharing dated 11 Aug 2024 of Rene Bernardo Bajit titled “With Hybrid Rice Producing 20% More, Or Feeding 70-80 Million More, Was Prof Yuan Longping Indeed ‘The Man Who Put An End To Hunger’”? (edited). Prof Longping died in 2021, but his hybrid rice legacy lives on.
(image from mycurrentaffairs.com)

The cited source says:

Prof Longping was a Chinese agronomist who was challenged to address (the) food supply when he experienced the great famine China suffered, which saw milliions die in the late 50’s. He pioneered breeding… rice and was faced with much challenge, (because) hybrid breeding in rice was considered not possible in his time. But with focus and much determination, after more than ten years, he finally produced the first hybrid rice in 1973.

I repeat to emphasize: “With focus and much determination, after more than ten years” – Prof Longping’s undaunted scientific efforts paid back in the first hybrid rice in 1973 – science needs patience too!

Today, Prof Yuan Longping is known as the “Father Of Hybrid Rice”.

So be it! But I see that as an isolated technological success – because in practice, scientific institutions, like my alma mater University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB), segregate the sciences into fields, such as “Plant Breeding” and “Agronomy” and “Agricultural Engineering” and “Home Technology” and so on. When I was studying at UPLB, 1960-1965, I did not see the fault in those fields isolated from each other and not linked back into a coherent much-bigger whole.

What I’m saying is that the triumph of hybrid rice remained a triumph only in Plant Breeding but not in all of Agriculture – like, how does hybrid rice bring about a farmer’s wealth and ensure that he grows out of his poverty?

Man does not live by rice alone!

Indeed! All of UP Los Baños – not to mention all of IRRI – should be endorsing and pursuing a whole program such as Regenerative Agriculture (RA) to fight hunger, fight poverty – and simultaneously fight Climate Change!

Away with Chemical Agriculture (CA)!

I stand corrected, but what I know is all these:

The chemical fertilizers and chemical pesticides generate greenhouse gases (GHGs) that add “power” to the atmospheric greenhouse effect that comes back as “El Niño” (devastating drought) and “La Niña” (devastating storm). The manufacturers of those chemicals grow ticher and richer while the farmers grow poorer and poorer. The means do not justify the ends!

We solve the yield problem; at the same time, we have to solve the poverty problem, and the climate problem!

We can do it by teaching our farmers RA, which does 3 things simultaneously:

1, decreases farming costs;
2, produces zero GHGs;
3, produces healthy foods;
4, produces high yields.

Hurrah, RA!@517