Yuan Longping, an academician from the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a winner of the Medal of the Republic, passed away in Changsha, Hunan Province at 13:07 on 22 May 2021 at the age of 91.
Mr Yuan devoted his life to the research, application, and extension of hybrid rice technology and made outstanding contributions to China's food security and agricultural scientific development, as well as the global food supply.
As the “father of hybrid rice,” Mr Yuan was deeply engaged in agriculture throughout his life. In his later years, he formed ties with Changsha Radio and TV University (RTVU). He was always conscious of the cultivation of rural college students in Changsha and happily served as an advisor to Changsha RTVU.
President Tao Lvfeng from Changsha RTVU visited Mr Yuan’s home and reported to him about the training of rural college students. Mr Yuan was delighted to learn that since the implementation of its training plan for rural college students, the university had trained a large number of rural grassroots Party members and a new type of practical rural professionals who are “willing to remain in rural areas, use what they have learned, understand technology, and have management skills” and were ready to join the cause of rural economic and social development and the serve-oriented community Party organisations. Mr Yuan told Tao with sincerity that more professionals were needed for rural revitalisation and that the cultivation of rural college students was a positive project that would grow from a fine seed. It is imperative to cultivate this seed well and let it flourish in order to train more talented individuals to serve Changsha’s rural revitalisation. Upon hearing about Changshan Rural College Students, a newspaper that would be started by Changsha RTVU, he gladly inscribed the newspaper’s masthead.
President Tao Lvfeng visiting Mr Yuan
Masthead of the Changsha Rural College Students newspaper inscribed by Mr Yuan
Mr Yuan had been following the progress of the university's training plan for rural college students and was very interested in their growth. On 21 September 2017, Mr Yuan visited Yi Fengwen, a student of the 2016 Class of Changsha RTVU’s, experimental field of new rice varieties for on-site instigation and instruction during Hunan’s Second Exhibition of New Rice Varieties and New Technologies. He praised Changsha RTVU’s achievements in the cultivation of rural college students.
Mr Yuan offering on-site instruction to Yi Fengwen (left of Mr. Yuan), a major rice grower and student of Changsha RTVU, and promoting new rice varieties
In September 2020, Changsha RTVU held the 2020 China Farmers’ Harvest Festival (Changsha) and the Second Changsha Rural College Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship Festival. Once again, Mr Yuan inscribed the following words of encouragement for the event: Agricultural harvest and a promising future for RTVU rural college students!
Words inscribed by Mr Yuan to encourage the rural college students of Changsha RTVU
In July 2015, Changsha RTVU undertook the “Training Plan for Rural College Students” in Changsha. The training plan aimed to train village cadres, reserve cadres, and rural Party members using a “degree + technology + ability” training model to realise the talent training objective of “letting specialised knowledge take root, making practical skills accessible, and improving application capacity” through face-to-face tutorials, practical teaching, and online teaching. As of July 2020, Changsha RTVU has cultivated 9,298 rural college students for the city of Changsha. 87% of the members of Changsha village (community) Party branch committees and villagers’ committees had an education at or above junior college level. A large portion of them are rural college students trained by the Changsha RTVU system. A sample survey conducted in July 2020 showed that when the rural college students were at school, 305 of them joined the Communist Party of China over the past five years, 216 of them actively participate in the deliberation and administration of state affairs as representatives to the Party Congress, deputies to the People’s Congress, and members of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, and 130 of them have started their own businesses. Rural college students in Changsha are now active in many different fields, such as rural grass-roots organisations, new-type agricultural cooperatives, and areas leading rural development and prosperity and poverty alleviation. They have become an important new force for the promotion of the rural revitalisation strategy in Changsha.
Mr Yuan once said: “A man is like a seed, and he must be a good seed.” Today, the people of Changsha miss Mr Yuan and fondly recall his ties with the cultivation of rural college students. We are confident that dear Mr Yuan’s kindly encouragement will bless rural college students in Changsha to become good seeds. They will take root, sprout, and flourish in the soil of rural revitalisation, and become the main force and backbone of rural revitalisation in Changsha.
By Changsha RTVU