College of Agriculture, Yangtze University

The Agricultural College was formerly the Jingzhou Branch of the former Huazhong Agricultural College (now Huazhong Agricultural University), which was established in 1977 and offered three majors: "Agronomy, Plant Protection, Soil and Agricultural Chemistry". It was renamed "Hubei Agricultural College" in 1985 and began to enroll four-year undergraduate students in agronomy; in 1986, it began to enroll undergraduate students in plant protection; in 1987, the original Hubei Agricultural College adjusted its departments and merged the three departments into the Department of Agronomy; in 2003, with the approval of the Ministry of Education, the four schools merged to form Yangtze University, under which the Agricultural College was established.

The college is one of the first batch of comprehensive reform pilot colleges in Hubei Province. It has three teaching departments, namely "Agronomy Department, Plant Protection Department, and Resources and Environment Department", and has four majors, namely "Agronomy, Plant Protection, Agricultural Resources and Environment, and Seed Science and Engineering". Agronomy and plant protection are the traditional advantageous brand majors of our school, and the agronomy major is a national characteristic major and a provincial brand major. Agronomy, plant protection, and agricultural resources and environment majors are included in the first batch of national "Excellent Agricultural and Forestry Talent Education and Training Program". The biological breeding direction of the agronomy major and the biological pesticide and biological fertilizer direction of the plant protection major are listed as the "Hubei Province Strategic Emerging (Pillar) Industry Talent Training Program". The college has three first-level disciplines, namely "Crop Science, Plant Protection, and Agricultural Resources and Environment". Among them, crop science is a "double first-class" construction discipline in Hubei Province, and plant protection is a provincial key discipline; agronomy and plant protection majors are national first-class majors, and agricultural resources and environment majors are provincial first-class majors. The college currently has a first-level doctoral degree authorization point and a postdoctoral research mobile station in crop science, 4 second-level doctoral degree authorization points, and 3 first-level master's degree authorization points.

The college currently has 82 full-time teachers, including 76 doctors and 5 masters; 18 doctoral supervisors and 64 master supervisors; 31 professors and 31 associate professors; 43 scholars with overseas training experience; 4 experts enjoying special allowances from the State Council and the provincial government, 1 "National Excellent Teacher", 3 "Provincial Young and Middle-aged Experts with Outstanding Contributions", 4 "Hubei Province New Century Talent Project (Second Level)" candidates; and 1 "Dual-appointed Academician".

In order to cultivate top innovative talents, the college implements a "two-base three-stage" full-course practical teaching model, namely, two types of practical teaching bases ("two bases"), "on-campus and off-campus", and three practical teaching stages ("three stages"); 63 off-campus practical teaching cooperation education bases have been established in universities such as the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, provincial academies of agricultural sciences, and Zhejiang University; the total value of experimental instruments and equipment is more than 65 million yuan, and there is an insect specimen museum with 500,000 specimens in the collection. The on-campus scientific research practice base covers an area of ​​2,200 acres, including intelligent greenhouses, net rooms, potted fields, meteorological stations, field test plots, and field demonstration areas. The college attaches great importance to the cultivation of college students' innovation and entrepreneurship capabilities. In the past two years, it has supported more than 114 college students' innovation and entrepreneurship projects, and 30% of undergraduates have entered the teacher's research group to carry out scientific research.

The college has 8 provincial and ministerial scientific research platforms, including the Engineering Research Center for Wetland Ecology and Agricultural Utilization of the Ministry of Education, the Hubei Provincial Key Laboratory of Waterlogging and Wetland Agriculture, the Hubei Provincial Waterlogged Land Development Engineering Technology Research Center, the Hubei Wetland Agriculture International Science and Technology Cooperation Base, the Hubei Provincial Collaborative Innovation Center for the Industrialization of Major Food Crops, the Hubei Provincial School-Enterprise Co-construction Biological Breeding Technology Research and Development Center, the Hubei Provincial School-Enterprise Co-construction Selenium-enriched Rice Research and Development Center, and the Hubei Provincial Agricultural and Forestry Pest Early Warning and Control Engineering Technology Research Center. The college also has 4 provincial graduate workstations and 1 provincial internship training base. In the past five years, it has successively presided over 2 national public welfare industry (agriculture) science and technology plan projects, 32 National Natural Science Foundations, 18 "13th Five-Year Plan" national key research and development special projects or sub-projects, and 120 provincial and ministerial projects (Hubei Provincial Science and Natural Science Foundation, Hubei Provincial Science and Technology Support Key Projects, Hubei Provincial Education Department Major Projects, etc.). The average annual scientific research funds received are more than 13 million.

In the past five years, the college has won 25 awards at the provincial and ministerial levels, including 7 first prizes, 8 second prizes, and 10 third prizes; presided over or participated in the breeding of 16 new rice varieties, formulated 12 local or industry standards, obtained 53 authorized patents with independent intellectual property rights, published 43 books or textbooks; and published 232 papers in the three major retrieval systems of SCI, EI, and ISTP.

The college currently has 936 full-time undergraduate students and 356 full-time doctoral and master's students. The college aims to cultivate "composite application-oriented modern agricultural talents with solid basic theory, high comprehensive quality, strong practical ability and innovative spirit"; it focuses on academic exchanges and cooperation with foreign universities and scientific research institutions, aligns the training methods of students with international standards, and has signed a mutual recognition agreement on credits for international students with foreign universities. It has established close cooperative relations with universities and scientific research institutions in many countries such as the United States, Germany, Japan, Canada, Australia, and South Korea, and has continuously selected outstanding undergraduates and graduate students to study abroad; it regularly invites well-known biologists at home and abroad to visit and give lectures, and hold large-scale academic exchange conferences, which has improved the college's academic innovation ability and comprehensive competitiveness.

Since its establishment, the college has cultivated and delivered a large number of agricultural technical and management talents who are "able to go down, use, do well, stay, and come up" to the society. They are committed to building meritorious services at the grassroots level, and a group of political elites such as Yang Xiaohui, He Jizheng, and Qian Yuankun have emerged; they are committed to academic careers, and a group of academic masters such as Xu Hanhong, Tian Feng, and Jiao Chunhai have emerged; they are committed to innovation and entrepreneurship, and a group of business tycoons such as Chen Wenhua, Zeng Henghong, and Wu Hongqing have emerged. They have all devoted themselves to the main battlefield of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and have written a brilliant chapter for the realization of the "Chinese Dream" in different forms.

In the new era, the college will be guided by "Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era", adhere to "moral education and talent cultivation" as the foundation, and take "strengthening agriculture and promoting agriculture" as its own responsibility. Focusing on the development goals of first-class colleges and first-class disciplines, further optimize the discipline direction and layout, and thoroughly implement the "Anji Consensus" (China's New Agricultural Science Construction Declaration), resonate with the pulse of the times, and fully serve the economic and social development of Hubei region, and strive to "go all out, contribute to me, and achieve the mission" in "promoting agricultural and rural modernization" and "comprehensive revitalization of rural areas".