Path-breaking Rice Breeders Celebrated for Developing Innovative Rice Technologies

The announcement of the co-winners of the $250,000 World Food Prize took place during a U.S. State Department ceremony with Secretary of State Colin Powell, Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman, and the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization Director-General Jacques Diouf on Monday, March 29, hosted by Under Secretary of State Alan Larson. The 2004 World Food Prize Laureates are:

Professor Yuan Longping of China, Director-General of the China National Hybrid Rice Research and Development Center in Changsha, Hunan, China.

Dr. Monty Jones of Sierra Leone, former senior rice breeder at the West Africa Rice Development Center (WARDA), presently Executive Secretary, Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), in Accra, Ghana.

In announcing these recipients, World Food Prize President, Ambassador Kenneth Quinn, lauded both scientists for their "breakthrough scientific achievements which have significantly increased food security for millions of people from Asia to Africa." The Ambassador added that it was particularly fitting that these two pioneering rice breeders be honored during the United Nations International Year of Rice, the crop identified as the staple diet of more than three billion people around the world.

Professor Yuan has been selected a co-recipient of The World Food Prize for his breakthrough achievement in the early 1970s in developing the genetic tools necessary for hybrid rice breeding, known as a three-line system. His achievement led to the world's first successful and widely grown high-yielding hybrid rice varieties with yields 20 percent above conventional varieties. His altering of the self-pollinating characteristic of rice made large-scale farming of hybrid rice possible. These achievements dramatically increased rice yields and grain output in China, providing food to feed an additional 60 million people each year. His approach is now being adapted to many other countries in Asia and around the world.

Dr. Jones has been selected a co-recipient of The World Food Prize for developing in the 1990s the "New Rice for Africa" (NERICA), uniquely adapted to the growing conditions of West Africa, by successfully crossing the Asian O. sativa with the African O. glaberrima strains to produce drought and pest resistant, high yielding new rice varieties, a feat which had not been achieved before in the history of rice breeding. His accomplishment is already producing enhanced harvests for thousands and thousands of poor farmers, most of them women, with potential benefit for 20 million farmers in West Africa alone.

The citations for The World Food Prize 2004 Laureates read as follows:

Professor Yuan Longping

Professor Yuan's breakthrough scientific achievement led to the world's first successful and widely grown hybrid rice varieties, revolutionizing rice cultivation in China and tripling production over a generation. His approach to rice breeding then spread internationally throughout Asia and to Africa and the Americas, providing food for tens of millions and leading to his becoming known as the "Father of Hybrid Rice."

Dr. Monty Jones

Working in the most difficult environments, Dr. Jones led a pioneering effort at WARDA to develop New Rice for Africa (NERICA). In an unprecedented achievement, he recaptured the genetic potential of ancient African rices by combining African and Asian rice species, dramatically increasing yields, and offering great hope to millions of poor farmers as a catalyst for agricultural transformation in West Africa.

The World Food Prize will be formally presented to Professor Yuan and Dr. Jones at a ceremony on October 14, 2004 in the Iowa State Capitol Building in Des Moines. The ceremony will be held as part of The World Food Prize International Symposium, "From Asia to Africa: Rice, Biofortification and Enhanced Nutrition."

The World Food Prize, created in 1986 by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Dr. Norman E. Borlaug, is the world's foremost award inspiring and recognizing breakthrough contributions to improving human development by increasing the quality, quantity, and availability of food in the world.