Scientist of the field

In the Vietnam Glory 2025 program directed by the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor with the theme "Pride and Aspiration" taking place on June 22, Dr. Tran Tan Phuong, a scientist from Soc Trang fields, is a typical individual nominated for honor. He is one of the three scientists who have created the world's best rice variety - ST25.

Although retired, Dr. Tran Tan Phuong - author of the ST25 rice variety - still spends time selecting and creating rice varieties. Photo: dantri.com.vn

Patience and effort

When it comes to ST rice varieties (abbreviation of Soc Trang), from ST3, ST5, ST19, 20 to ST24, ST25 (2 times honored as the World's Best Rice), everyone knows the Labor Hero, engineer Ho Quang Cua (son of Soc Trang). Besides, there are also effective collaborators and companions throughout the past decades with him to create the world-famous rice variety, that is Dr. Tran Tan Phuong and Master Nguyen Thi Thu Huong.

After 30 years working in the agricultural sector, more than 20 years directly researching rice breeding, and more than 10 years working in management, Dr. Tran Tan Phuong, Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Environment, has just retired. Born in 1966, he is one of the few people who retired early, nearly 4 years before the age. According to him, retiring early will give him more time to research and breed rice varieties.

Dr. Tran Tan Phuong has been pursuing a career in hybridization research since 2003. When he first joined the fragrant rice research group led by engineer Ho Quang Cua, he quickly became a valuable collaborator and contributed significantly to the group's creation of dozens of famous high-quality ST fragrant rice varieties favored by domestic and foreign markets.

From practical knowledge in rice breeding combined with in-depth research, in 2011, Mr. Tran Tan Phuong successfully defended his PhD thesis in Breeding Genetics, a major that more than 60 years ago, Dr. Luong Dinh Cua (also a son of Soc Trang ) studied and successfully defended his thesis at Kyushu University (Japan).

According to him, to create rice varieties with differences in yield, quality, resistance to pests, drought, salinity... the only way is to apply genetic methods in breeding. Although this method is difficult and time-consuming, it still has to be done and has achieved success. Currently, many international organizations have established research cooperation relationships with his Soc Trang rice research station such as: International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Kyushu University (Japan), Japan Agricultural Genetics Institute, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)...

Previously, atomic irradiation technology to create mutations in Vietnam was not widely known, selecting good genes from many different rice varieties in different regions, combining them into hybrids with characteristics suitable for Soc Trang soil was not easy. Therefore, to create a good rice variety sometimes takes several years, research work requires patience and effort to get results.

Initially, the research team bred new rice varieties from simple combinations of 2-3 parents, resulting in varieties such as ST11, ST12; later, each combination had multiple parents to integrate aroma, softness, resistance to pests and diseases, and beautiful grain shape. Thanks to that, varieties ST24, ST25 were born one after another.

In 2019, the ST25 rice variety won the title of “World’s Best Rice” and continued to be honored in 2023 as a result of the research team’s perseverance over many years. Up to now, the ST24 and ST25 varieties are not only associated with the fields of Soc Trang but are also widely grown in many provinces and cities across the country.

Expanding and increasing the value of specialty rice

The research process of selecting and creating high-quality rice varieties by Dr. Phuong's group was divided into two phases. Before 2012, the group focused on selecting and creating fragrant rice varieties with quality comparable to those of Thailand.

From 2013 to now, the research phase has been to improve the quality of fragrant rice, increase productivity and resistance to pests and diseases, adapt to climate change, and promote international research cooperation. The results have resulted in fragrant rice varieties that are resistant to brown planthoppers, rich in iron, and resistant to bacterial leaf blight. The results have contributed to expanding and increasing the value of Soc Trang specialty rice. The prices of ST rice exported from Soc Trang have increased sharply, sometimes exceeding the threshold of 1,000 USD/ton.

Sharing his passion, Dr. Phuong said that researching and developing Soc Trang specialty fragrant rice is to meet the increasing demand of consumers for "delicious food" instead of "full food", especially serving domestic consumption and export needs, increasing the value of Vietnamese rice.

For Dr. Tran Tan Phuong, the scientist who hybridized rice varieties for farmers to grow and people to eat. People who eat find it delicious, farmers who grow many of the rice varieties he hybridized, is a success. Like the ST24 and ST25 rice varieties recognized as the best and second best in the world, raising the value of Vietnamese rice to the world level, people in the country love it, sometimes not enough for domestic consumption, showing great success. However, consumer demand does not stop there, so he continues to hybridize and research to have new rice varieties that can resist pests, drought and salinity, adapt to climate change and give higher yield and quality.
Therefore, at the Soc Trang Rice Research Station of Dr. Tran Tan Phuong, thousands of rice varieties with valuable genetic resources are being stored, collected domestically and internationally, with about 20,000 hybrid combinations that he and his colleagues have nurtured to produce new, delicious, fragrant, and sticky rice lines and varieties in the future.

With his early retirement, he said he will have more time to research and breed new rice varieties. He wants to successfully breed long-blooming rice from Basmati rice, a long-grain rice variety originating from India and Pakistan, so that it can grow well in Soc Trang. With thousands of hybrid combinations being created in the annual breeding process, he said he will have to research, evaluate and process them in the next few years without running out of work.

With his special achievements and research team creating dozens of high-quality rice varieties that have brought glory to the Vietnamese rice industry, Dr. Tran Tan Phuong was honored to receive the First Class Labor Medal (2019) and the Ho Chi Minh Prize for Science and Technology (2021) from the President.

He has also received many awards from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) for his outstanding achievements in applying nuclear techniques to create mutant plant varieties. In addition, he received the Golden Rice Award and many Certificates of Merit from Ministries, sectors, and Soc Trang province for his achievements in rice hybridization and contributions to Vietnam's agriculture sector...

Source: https://baotintuc.vn/nguoi-tot-viec-tot/vinh-quang-viet-nam-2025-nha-khoa-hoc-cua-dong-ruong-20250620082905929.htm