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Xinhua reported that in December, Yuan insisted on heading to the hybrid rice research base in Sanya, Hainan province, as he had done in recent years.

In March, he had a fall while working at the base and was taken to a local hospital before being transferred to Changsha for treatment early last month.

During his first few days in hospital, Yuan asked medical workers every day about the weather and the temperature.

One day, a nurse told him it was 28 C outside. Yuan was upset and worried that this would affect the maturity of the hybrid rice crop.

He began researching hybrid rice in 1964, succeeding in cultivating the world's first high-yield hybrid rice strain in 1973. He continued to work in this field and made new breakthroughs.

Stinson said: "He made such a powerful contribution. He was one of our most laudable leaders. Professor Yuan will long be remembered."

In China, the annual planting area of hybrid rice now exceeds 16 million hectares, 57 percent of the total rice planting area, helping feed an extra 80 million people a year in a country where rice is a staple for most of the population, Xinhua reported.

In a statement released on Saturday, the China National Hybrid Rice Research and Development Center said the annual growth area for this type of rice has reached 8 million hectares in countries including India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Brazil and the United States, with each hectare on average producing about 2 metric tons more grain than local strains.

Stinson said Yuan was credited not only for his hybrid rice achievement, but for the ability to shift land out of rice production and into other kinds of food production, including fish, fruit and vegetables, thus increasing the nutritional content of food in China, and contributing to the reduction of hunger and poverty.