Võ Tòng Xuân


Dr. Võ Tòng Xuân is former Provost of Tân Tạo University, the former rector of An Giang University and the former vice rector of Can Tho University. He was also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Rockefeller Foundation from 2002 until 2010.
He is known throughout southern Vietnam as Dr. Rice because of a popular television show which he presented that taught farmers better techniques for growing and cultivating rice. He was also instrumental in the eradication of the brown planthopper bug which, throughout the 1970s was destroying paddy rice. Part of the problem in eradicating the bug infestation was the type of collectivization imposes on the farmers of southern Vietnam. He also helped to bring about reforms in the early 1980s that can be seen as catalysts to the Doi Moi reforms of 1986.
His activities were a key driver of Vietnam becoming one of the world's largest rice exporters.

Notable Positions within International Organizations