People line up to pay homage to deceased Chinese agronomist Yuan Longping, the "father of hybrid rice," at the Hunan Hybrid Rice Research Center in China’s Changsha City, a major workplace of the top scientist, May 23, 2021. (Photo: China News Service/Yang Huafeng)

The globally renowned Chinese agronomist passed away at 13:07 BJT on Saturday at the age of 91.

The top Chinese scientist, who had developed the first hybrid rice strain that pulled countless people out of hunger, died of illness in a hospital in Changsha, capital of central China’s Hunan Province.

Having spent over five decades in hybrid rice research, the academician with the Chinese Academy of Engineering had helped China achieve a great wonder -- feeding nearly one-fifth of the world's population with less than 9 percent of the world's total land.

Yuan succeeded in cultivating the world's first high-yielding hybrid rice strain in 1973, which could reach a yield of over 500 kg per mu (about 0.067 hectares), increasing 200 kg per mu from the previous yield of 300 kg per mu.

For the next four decades, he continued to research and upgrade hybrid rice, which has reached its third generation. In 2020, hybrid rice developed by Yuan's team achieved 1,500 kilograms per mu (about 22.5 tons per hectare) in two growing seasons, setting a new world record.

In China, where rice is the staple for the majority of the 1.4 billion population, the accumulated planting area of hybrid rice has exceeded 16 million hectares, or 57 percent of the total planting area of rice, helping feed an extra 80 million people a year.

It has also been grown extensively in over 40 countries, including the U.S., Brazil, India, Vietnam, the Philippines and Madagascar. The total planting area of the hybrid rice has reached 8 million hectares overseas, according to Xinhua News Agency.

On September 29, 2019, a day before the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Yuan was awarded the "Medal of the Republic," the highest honor in the country, for his outstanding contribution to China's food security, agricultural scientific development and world food supply.

(With input from CGTN, Xinhua News Agency)