With a history of 120 years, including 74 years of undergraduate education, the School of Agronomy (SA) of Hunan Agricultural University can be traced back to Xiuye Academy founded in 1903 and the Agricultural College of Hunan University in 1949. Formerly known as the Department of Agronomy established in 1951, the SA was officially founded in 2022. The School has now developed into a research-teaching School with a comprehensive academic system to students at all levels.  

Excellent teaching and research environment: SA has one National “2011” Collaborative Innovation Center of Southern Grain and Oil Crops, three national scientific research platforms and 11 province scientific research platforms. 16 awards have been bestowed upon the School at national level and 100 at provincial level for its scientific and technological achievements. Moreover, more than 200 new varieties have been approved and over 500 patents granted.  The new breeds like rapeseed, rice, corn, peanuts, cotton, and tobacco, and the technical achievements accomplished have been widely spread across the nation.

Highly qualified faculty: SA has 137 faculty members, including one academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, one recipient of the National Outstanding Teachers, 13 national young or middle-aged experts with outstanding contributions, 3 national prominent experts, 19 province prominent experts. Among the teachers, there are 41 professors and 25 associate professors. The School has a “Crop Science Core Course Teaching Team” as a national teaching team and a national teaching team of Huang Danian style (who is a national-wide outstanding teacher and model for scientific researchers).

SA has a total enrollment of 1, 541 full-time students, including 1,043 undergraduates, 348 master’s candidates, and 150 PhD candidates.

SA has 6 departments: Department of Agronomy, Department of Plant Science & Technology, Department of Seed Science & Technology, Department of Pratacultural Science, Department of Tobacco Science, and Department of Intelligent Agriculture.

Discipline and Degree

Key Disciplines and Key Specialty Construction Disciplines in Hunan Province and “Project 211” Key Construction Discipline: Crop Genetics and Breeding

Provincial Key Discipline, Key Specialty Disciplines：Crop Cultivation and Farming Science, Pratacultural Science

Provincial Key Disciplines of the 12th Five-Year Plan: Crop Science and Pratacultural Science

First-category Discipline：Crop Science, Pratacultural Science

Crop Science Post-doctoral Research Station

Crop Science Post-doctoral Research Station（1995）

Doctoral Program 

First-category PhD Degree program

Crop Science（1998）

Pratacultural Science（2011）

Second-category PhD Degree program

Crop Genetics and Breeding（1996）

Crop Cultivation and Farming System (1986）

Seed Science & Technology（2003）

Pratacultural Science & Technology（2005）

Tobacco Science（2003）

Master Program

Crop Science (1978)

Crop Cultivation and Farming System(1978)

Crop Genetics and Breeding(1978)

Seed Science & Technology（2003）

Tobacco Science（2003）

Pratacultural Science（2000）

Bachelor Program

Agronomy(1951)

Pratacultural Science (2001)

Seed Science & Engineering (2007)

Tobacco (2008)

Intelligent Agriculture 

Scientific Research and Social Services

Scientific Research

To meet the demands of local economy and promote regional development, the research orientates the overall design of the whole industry chain, major focuses are on the features of crop multi-cropping production in the south of China, such as the development of multi-cropping species and breeding, physiological ecology and cultivation of crops, seed science and technology, theory and technology of multi-cropping system. Crop science, along with plant and animal science, is listed as global top 1% disciplines in ESI rankings of agricultural science. In the fourth round of disciplinary assessment of the Ministry of Education, crop science is graded as B⁺ discipline.

Platforms and Bases

There are national innovation platforms such as the National 2011 Collaborative Innovation Center of Southern Grain and Oil Crops and over 10 other provincial and ministerial research platforms. Major platforms are as follows,

Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Engineering (Hunan Province) (1996)

National Oil Material Improvement Center Hunan Branch (2003)

Key Laboratory of Crop Physiology and Molecular Biology (MOE)(2005)

Innovation Center of Crop Germplasm and Resources Utilization(National Key Training Laboratory) (2007)

Key Laboratory of Rice and Rapeseed Disease Resistance Breeding (Hunan Province)

Hunan Province Peanut Engineering Technology Research Center

Hunan Province Rice Field Ecological Seed Breeding and Farming Engineering Technology Research Center

Key Open Laboratory of Cultivation and Farming of Multi-cropping System (MOA) (2008)

Key Laboratory of Rapeseed Biology and Genetic Breeding Triple-cropping System (MOA) (2011)

National Rice Engineering Laboratory (2011)

Central China Region Observation and Experiment Station of Crop Cultivation (MOA) (2011)

Corn Engineering Technology Research Center (Hunan Province)(2012)

Crop Multi-cropping Engineering and Technology Research Center (Hunan Province) (2012)

National 2011 Collaborative Innovation Center of Southern Grain and Oil Crops

China Tobacco Central South Agricultural Experimental Station

Social Services

1. Giving full play of the scientific research on regional multi-cropping system to the development of local economy, such as the advantages of breeding, cultivation rice, rapeseed, cotton, tobacco, ramie and corn.

2. Innovating service modes of agricultural technology by the following means:

1）The national agricultural industrial technology system;

2）Science and technology commissioner plan;

3）Ten thousands scientific and technological talents serving modern agricultural engineering;

4）Rural revitalization and target poverty alleviation;

5）“Three Areas” (which means poverty-stricken areas, border ethnic areas, and old revolutionary base areas) Scientific and Technological Talent Plan;

6）Modern grain and oil production demonstration project;

7) Talent training base of industry-university-research cooperation;

8）Training courses of international and domestic crop production technology;

9）Transformation of scientific and technological achievements.

10）School-Enterprise Cooperation.