"Rice wizard" Võ Tòng Xuân and his contributions to science
Professor Võ Tòng Xuân, dubbed the "rice wizard," made exceptional contributions to Vietnamese agriculture.
According to Nam Cần Thơ University (a private university in the Mekong Delta city of Cần Thơ), Professor Võ Tòng Xuân, a People's Teacher and the university's honorary rector, passed away on the morning of April 19, 2024 at a hospital in Ho Chi Minh City.
Born in 1940 in An Giang province in the Mekong Delta, Professor Võ Tòng Xuân was known as a leading expert who made many contributions to agricultural science and research in Vietnam. He was also a Vietnamese agricultural expert who helped other countries in the region with food security.
Professor Võ Tòng Xuân died at the age of 84 (Photo: Nguyễn Nguyễn).
In 1971, while his career was flourishing at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), with a salary of thousands of US dollars a month and a modern working environment, he packed up and returned to Vietnam for a lower salary, simply because he wanted to train agricultural engineers for his homeland at the invitation of the rector of Cần Thơ University.
His love of science and his longing to rebuild the country ran like a powerful current through a man who always rose above hardship.
After returning home, he worked at Cần Thơ University. There, together with Japanese researchers, he continued projects on rice cultivation techniques and published many scientific papers, while promoting farming techniques and agricultural policy.
Vietnam's agricultural revolution was strongly driven by Professor Võ Tòng Xuân's efforts to develop and disseminate disease-resistant rice varieties, helping to strengthen global food security.
He played a key role in spreading the IR36 variety across pest-prone areas of the Mekong Delta and worked with farmers to adopt advanced transplanting techniques.
Thanks to these initiatives, Professor Xuân expanded access to quality rice seed and boosted rice output at lower cost without the use of toxic chemicals.
Professor Võ Tòng Xuân played a key role in disseminating the IR36 rice variety, which has had a positive impact on the lives of millions of people around the world (Photo: Getty).
Thanks to the efforts of Professor Xuân and his colleagues, the widespread adoption of IR36 and other varieties contributed significantly to higher rice yields, with output rising to as much as 600 million tonnes in the 2000s.
In addition to IR36, the IR64 rice variety was grown on more than 10 million hectares within two decades of its release. Renowned not only at home, his research also benefited poor countries in Africa, positively affecting the lives of millions of people worldwide.
Professor Xuân once said: "Those who understand me know that I do not chase professional ambitions unless it is for the sake of farmers."
Professor Võ Tòng Xuân was the first Vietnamese scientist honored at the VinFuture Prize, for his work "Invention and dissemination of disease-resistant rice varieties" (Photo: VinFuture Prize).
The "father" of the IR36 rice variety always believed that if he could find a way to help farmers harvest more tonnes of rice and suffer less hardship, he would have "met his target."
In December 2023, Professor Võ Tòng Xuân became the first Vietnamese scientist honored at the VinFuture Prize for his work "Invention and dissemination of disease-resistant rice varieties."
Earlier, Võ Tòng Xuân was conferred the title of Professor of Agronomy (1980) and named a Hero of Labor (1985).
