A leading scientist was announced Thursday the winner of the "Top Scientific Award" in northwest China's Shaanxi Province and a bonus of one million yuan (about US$120,000) for his contribution to helping farmers produce more oil from rapeseed.

Li Dianrong, the scientist, was credited with more than 30 years of hybrid rape research and his successful development of the world's first hybrid rape strain, the Qinyou-2, that was put into mass production in 1985.

The Qinyou-2 produces 3,000 to 3,750 kilograms of rapeseed per hectare, 450 kilograms more than conventional rape strains.

The Qinyou-7, another rape strain Li has developed, also gives higher rapeseed output and its oil content is as high as 43 percent. It has been grown widely in the Yellow and Huaihe river valleys and the lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

As a major cash crop in China, rape is grown in the country with an acreage of about 6.7 million hectares.

(Xinhua News Agency April 16, 2004)