Watermelon expert revered for dedication

China produced more than 79 million metric tons of watermelons in 2018, becoming the largest producer and consumer of the fruit in the world, according to data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

Ninety-two-year-old Wu Mingzhu, a native of Wuhan, Hubei province, is the unsung hero who has helped make this possible. She was admitted to Southwest Agricultural College in Chongqing in the late 1940s, majoring in horticulture and a fellow alumnus of late Yuan Longping, the "father of hybrid rice".

"It's no exaggeration to say that about 80 percent of the watermelons and sweet melons served at people's dining tables every day are the result of painstaking efforts made by Wu and her team over more than 60 years," said Zhang Wenjun, a colleague of Wu's and director of the Hainan Sanya Breeding Center at the Xinjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences.