A group of international students graduated Friday from an agricultural training program sponsored by the Ministry of Commerce and received graduation certificates from Yuan Longping, China's renowned rice scientist, Xinhua reports.

Professor Yuan Longping checks hybrid rice in this file photo. [Xinhua]

The 45-day program, hosted by Yuan Longping High-Tech Agriculture Company, taught advanced breeding and cultivating techniques of "super rice" to 21 students from countries including Thailand, Indian, Pakistan and Ethiopia. The program also brought them to hybrid rice test fields in Huaihua and Zhangjiajie in Central China's Hunan province.

Yuan, dubbed as China's "father of hybrid rice", awarded certificates to the international students and congratulated them by speaking English at a ceremony held in Changsha, the capital city of Hunan.

"I am not a qualified teacher," Yuan said, joking that he can only spared time for those international students to share his thoughts and experience with them.

The students were impressed by the training and inspired by what they have learnt.

Huang Dahui, the deputy director of Longping High-Tech International Training Institute, said the faculty has held more than 100 such training programs since 2000, and more than 6,000 foreign students have benefited from the programs.

"The programs have introduced our advanced technology to the whole world and also deepened friendships between China and different countries," Huang said.