A bronze statue of Yuan Longping, the pioneer of hybrid rice, was unveiled in Xiaolong village of Guanyang county, Guilin, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, on Sept 14 to commemorate the 92nd anniversary of Yuan's birth.

Plaque of a permanent sci-tech research and experiment station on the super hybrid rice developed by Yuan was also unveiled that day.

Guanyang, located in northeast Guangxi, is a grain-producing county focusing on rice paddy production. Yuan visited the county six times during his lifetime to guide the production of super hybrid rice, bringing considerable changes to the county as Guanyang had the highest yield of excellent hybrid rice for 11 consecutive years.

Yuan Dingyang, son of Yuan Longping and deputy director of Hunan Hybrid Rice Research Center, said he would follow in his father's footsteps and devote more efforts to hybrid rice research while unveiling the plaque.

Lu Song, Party secretary of Guanyang, said that the county would give full play to the station and continue to move forward with the transformation of sci-tech outcomes, making more contributions to ensuring food safety and promoting rural vitalization.