Vo Tong Xuan

Who is Vo Tong Xuan?

Dr. Võ Tòng Xuân is the rector of Tan Tao University. He is the former rector of An Giang University and the former vice rector of Can Tho University. He is 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 that he ran that taught farmers tactics for growing and cultivating rice. He was also instrumental in the eradication of the brown planthopper bug which, throughout the 1970s was destroying rice crops. Part of the problem in eradicating the bug infestation was the type of collectivization imposes on the farmers of southern Vietnam. He 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.