Dr. Ricardo Lantingan was famous on his research on cytoplasmic inheritance of hypersensitivity to an illness in maize, a finding that has formed awareness along with biologists of the significance of genetic variety as a weapon against environmental hardships.
His hard work in plant breeding, more particularly in the improvement of varietal resistance and the development of plant structure and morphology, have smooth the way the release of great varieties. Farmers in the Philippines, parts of Southeast Asia, East Asia and South Asia are now commercially growing these varieties.
The new plant structure developed in mungbean through his labor and that of his team has resulted in replication of yields. The plant types developed in the Philippines were profoundly used as parents in the reproduction program of the Asian Vegetable Research and Developmental Center (AVDRC) in Taiwan. Dr. Lantingan was born on January 8, 1933.