CHANGSHA, May 26 (Xinhua) -- A seminar on food security for developing countries was held in Changsha, capital of central China's Hunan Province, on Wednesday.

Hosted by the Ministry of Commerce, the seminar is aimed at strengthening exchanges between China and other developing countries in agricultural cooperation and food security and deepening cooperation in the agricultural field.

A total of 95 participants from 14 countries, including Kenya, Egypt, Cambodia, Nigeria, Egypt and Pakistan, will take part in the online seminar over the next 14 days.

A retrospective video was played at the opening ceremony of the seminar in memory of Yuan Longping, the "father of hybrid rice," with all the participants observing a moment of silence.

"I would pay our condolences on the sad demise of the 'father of hybrid rice,' the great Prof. Yuan Longping, who fetch out the poor world from the poverty level of hunger by developing hybrid rice being used by many countries of the world," said Syed Sultan Ali, a participant from Rice Research Institute in Kala Shah Kaku, Pakistan.

"We as a researcher in hybrid rice will always keep following his footprints for the development of hybrid rice to feed our local population," he added.

According to Liu Famou of Longping High-tech, China has trained more than 14,000 hybrid rice technicians for dozens of developing countries since the 1980s.

Source: Xinhua