Translated by Zhao, Kuangli; Zhao, Baohua.
He is well-known in China and is known as the "father of hybrid rice".
He turned away from wheat and sweet potato breeding to rice because the climate in Hunan was not friendly to growing wheat and sweet potato was no more than a coarse food.
Yuan worked as the chief consultant for the in 1991.
He liked English, geography and chemistry while didn't like mathematics at school.
The focus of his research in recent years shifted to exploring sustainable methods for maintaining food security.