[citation needed] He was also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Rockefeller Foundation from 2002 until 2010.
[1][failed verification] He is known throughout southern Vietnam as Dr. Rice because of a popular television show 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 limitations in improving farming caused by the type of collectivization imposed on the farmers of southern Vietnam.
[citation needed] His activities were a key driver of Vietnam becoming one of the world's largest rice exporters.