This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English AgricultureReport.
Scientists from China and Sierra Leone are the winners of thisyear’s World Food Prize. The winners were announced at a ceremony inWashington, D.C. led by Secretary of State Colin Powell last Monday.Chinese Professor Yuan Longping and Monty Jones will share thetwo-hundred-fifty-thousand-dollar prize. Both men are being honoredfor work they did to improve rice production in developingcountries. Two-thousand-four is the International Year of Rice.
Professor Yuan is head of the National Hybrid Rice Research andDevelopment Center in Hunan, China. He received his share of theprize for work he did in the nineteen-seventies.
Mister Yuan developed ways to genetically combine different kindsof rice to increase production. He discovered that combining twokinds of rice results in a better, more productive new rice. Heestablished the hybrid rice seed industry in China. He also sharedresearch and helped train scientists from more than twenty-fivecountries. For his efforts, Mister Yuan is called the “Father ofHybrid Rice.”
Monty Jones is being honored for his part in developing the “NewRice for Africa” or NERICA. He developed NERICA while he was head ofthe Upland Rice Breeding Program. At the time, the program was partof the West Africa Rice Development Agency in Ivory Coast.
NERICA is a combination of Asian and traditional African kinds ofrice. It resists insects and dry conditions and can produce up tofifty percent more rice. It also grows faster and contains moreprotein than rice native to West Africa. Mister Jones is now a topofficial of the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa in Accra,Ghana.
The two scientists will officially receive their prize on Octoberfourteenth in Des Moines, Iowa.
Norman Borlaug first developed theidea of a world food prize. He wanted to honor people who increasedfood production to help feed the growing world population.
Mister Borlaug knows something about major prizes. He won theNobel Peace Prize in nineteen-seventy. He received the award for hiswork to develop more productive agriculture.
Iowa businessman John Ruan provides the money for the World FoodPrize. He began his support in nineteen-ninety. The World Food PrizeFoundation has given the prize every year sincenineteen-eighty-seven.
This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by MarioRitter. This is Steve Ember.