Northwest A&F University

Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University is located in Yangling, Shaanxi, the birthplace of Chinese agricultural civilization and a national agricultural high-tech industry demonstration zone. It is a key university directly under the Ministry of Education and a key construction university of the original "985 Project" and "211 Project". It is one of the first universities selected as the national "world-class universities and first-class disciplines" construction universities. The current party secretary is Li Xingwang and the president is Wu Pute.

The predecessor of the school was the National Northwest Agriculture and Forestry College founded in 1934, which is the earliest higher agricultural and forestry education institution in the northwest region. Since its birth, the school has been closely related to the fate of the country and the nation, and has shared honor and disgrace. It shoulders the historical responsibility of building the northwest, promoting education and agriculture, and cultivating talents. In September 1999, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, in order to implement the Western Development Strategy and promote the reform of the scientific and educational system, merged the former Northwest Agricultural University, Northwest Forestry University, Institute of Soil and Water Conservation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Ministry of Water Resources, Northwest Water Resources Research Institute of the Ministry of Water Resources, Shaanxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shaanxi Academy of Forestry Sciences, and Northwest Institute of Botany of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shaanxi Province to establish Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University, and implemented a joint construction mechanism between the ministry, province, and academy, giving the school an important mission to support and lead the development of modern agriculture in arid and semi-arid areas. In 2019, the Ministry of Education and seven other ministries, provinces, academies, and bureaus jointly issued opinions to continue to deepen the joint construction of Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University, and work together to support the school to accelerate the construction of a world-class agricultural university, bringing new opportunities for the school's development.

Over the past 80 years since its founding, generations of NWNU people have adhered to the school-running philosophy of "governing the country, solving people's livelihood, and advocating science", adhered to the school motto of "honesty, simplicity, courage and perseverance", inherited the aspirations of the ancient agricultural god Hou Ji, and carried out the contemporary "teaching people to farm", forming the NWNU spirit of "taking root in Yangling, caring about the country, stepping on the loess, caring about agriculture, rural areas and farmers, willing to endure hardships, and pursuing excellence" and the NWNU scientific culture of "unity, truth-seeking, tenacity and self-confidence", and embarked on a characteristic school-running path of close integration of production, learning and research, and made important contributions to promoting the modernization of my country's agriculture and the development of agricultural science and education.

The school has a graduate school and 28 colleges (departments and institutes), with a total of 14 postdoctoral mobile stations, 16 first-level disciplines authorized to confer doctoral degrees, 28 first-level disciplines authorized to confer master's degrees, 2 doctoral professional degree authorization categories, 17 master's professional degree authorization categories, and 74 undergraduate majors. There are 7 national key disciplines and 2 national key (cultivation) disciplines; 10 disciplines including agricultural science, botany and zoology, engineering, environmental science and ecology, chemistry, biology and biochemistry, pharmacology and toxicology, molecular biology and genetics, microbiology, and earth science are among the top 1% of ESI global disciplines, and 2 disciplines including agricultural science and botany and zoology are among the top 1‰ of ESI. At present, it has developed into the most complete agricultural college in the country with the most complete agricultural, forestry and water disciplines.

As early as the beginning of its establishment in 1934, the school began to recruit undergraduates and began to recruit graduate students in 1941. For a long time, the school has adhered to the overall idea of ​​"solid foundation, broad caliber, strong practice, emphasis on innovation, high quality, and internationalization", and has focused on cultivating academic elites, innovative and entrepreneurial technology leaders, and social development management talents with firm ideals and beliefs, social responsibility, and "agriculture, rural areas and farmers" sentiments, innovative spirit, practical ability, and international vision to serve the development of modern agriculture. The school attaches great importance to first-class undergraduate education and actively participates in the construction of "new agricultural science". 25 majors have been selected as national first-class undergraduate major construction sites, and the "Bioscience Outstanding Student Training Base" has been selected into the Ministry of Education's Basic Discipline Outstanding Student Training Program 2.0. It has 1 national life science and technology talent training base, 3 national talent training model innovation experimental areas, 12 national characteristic majors, and 8 "Excellent Agricultural and Forestry Talent Education and Training Program" majors. The agronomy major has passed the agricultural science major (third level) certification, and the hydrology and water resources engineering, agricultural water conservancy engineering, water conservancy and hydropower engineering, and food science and engineering majors have passed the engineering education major certification. It has 2 "Ten Thousand People Plan" teaching masters, 2 national teaching masters, and 5 national teaching teams. It has built 12 national-level quality courses, 8 national-level quality resource sharing courses, 4 national-level video open courses, and 20 national-level first-class undergraduate courses. 52 national-level "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" and "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" planning textbooks have been selected, and 1 has won the second prize of the National Excellent Textbook. The school insists on cultivating people with morality and promoting the all-round development of students, and has a comprehensive quality education college. The university attaches great importance to cultivating the innovative ability of college students, encourages and supports students to participate in various high-level subject competitions, training and practice of innovative and entrepreneurial projects, and has won the first-level national award in top competitions such as the National "Internet +" Competition and the "Challenge Cup" Academic Extracurricular Competition for many times, ranking among the top agricultural and forestry universities in the country. Since its establishment, the university has trained and supplied more than 200,000 talents of various types to the society, and its graduates are spread all over the world. 19 alumni have become academicians of the two academies, making important contributions to the modernization of agriculture and rural economic and social development in Northwest China and even the whole country.

The school adheres to the scientific and technological work policy of combining "top" and "ground", aims at the forefront of international science and technology, closely follows the national strategic needs and regional development needs, and actively carries out applied basic research and applied technology research for the actual agricultural production, and forms distinctive characteristics and advantages in research fields such as crop genetic breeding and pest control, soil and water conservation and ecological restoration, efficient water use in arid areas, breeding and cultivation of economic forestry and fruit, breeding and healthy breeding of livestock and poultry, agricultural biotechnology, facility agricultural engineering, grapes and wine. Since its establishment, the school has accumulated more than 6,000 scientific and technological achievements of various types and more than 1,800 award-winning achievements. The school has cultivated the world's largest cumulative promotion area of ​​fine wheat variety "Bi Ma No. 1", the distant hybrid wheat variety "Xiao Yan No. 6" that has long dominated the replacement of wheat varieties in my country, and my country's largest independently cultivated and promoted fine apple variety "Qin Guan" and other important scientific and technological achievements, and the direct economic benefits of promotion and transformation have exceeded 300 billion yuan. Since the merger, the school has kept in mind the national mission of serving the sustainable development of arid areas, and has always stood at the forefront of promoting the development of the western region, the national "Belt and Road" construction, and the rural revitalization strategy. It has won 44 national science and technology awards, presided over 95 provincial and ministerial first prizes, and obtained 1,812 national authorized invention patents. The series of key technologies for high-quality, efficient and green production of apples on the Loess Plateau studied have supported and led the Loess Plateau to become the world-recognized and largest high-quality apple production base in the country. The soil erosion control technology system constructed has overcome the world's difficult problem of ecological environment construction on the Loess Plateau, promoted the green map of Shaanxi to move 400 kilometers northward, and played an important role in the implementation of the national project of returning farmland to forest (grass).

The school has accumulated a fine tradition of being close to the "three rural issues" and serving the society in its long-term school-running practice. Since the merger, the university has actively played its social service role, oriented to the development needs of the national and regional leading industries, and actively carried out demonstration and promotion of scientific and technological achievements and industrialization services. It was the first in China to explore and practice a new model of agricultural science and technology promotion based on universities, established scientific and technological cooperation with more than 500 local governments or leading enterprises, and established 28 agricultural science and technology experimental demonstration stations and 46 demonstration bases in the central areas of regional leading industries, building a fast channel for university agricultural science and technology achievements to enter villages and households, and creating a cumulative direct economic benefit of more than 80 billion yuan. Actively participate in rural revitalization and agricultural science and technology modernization, explore and practice the "three groups and one team" assistance work model, and related work cases have been rated as the top ten typical projects of universities directly under the Ministry of Education for two consecutive years, and have been rated "good" in the assessment of targeted assistance work of central units for four consecutive years. It was among the first batch of new rural development research institutes in the country, and established the Rural Revitalization Strategy Research Institute and the Shaanxi Rural Revitalization Industry Research Institute. It has also established the Farmers Development College, which provides important intellectual support for serving the modernization of agriculture and rural areas in the new era.

The school adheres to the principle of open education. By strengthening substantive cooperation with world-class universities and academic institutions, it actively expands international science and technology education cooperation and exchanges, forming a new pattern of international cooperation and exchange with all-round, multi-level and multi-channel. It has established inter-school cooperation relations with more than 112 well-known universities or research institutions in 36 countries around the world, and an average of 1,000 foreign scholars come to the school for academic exchanges each year. It has jointly carried out two Sino-foreign cooperative education projects in food science and engineering and environmental science with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the University of Arizona in the United States. At present, the cooperative education project of plant protection professional jointly organized with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in the United States has passed the evaluation of the Shaanxi Provincial Cooperative Education Expert Group. The school is qualified to receive Chinese government scholarship students to study in China, and currently has 281 international students of various types. The internationalization of the school has achieved a transformation from "promoting internal development with external participation" to "going out and acting as a role", actively participating in the construction of the "Belt and Road Initiative", and has gradually become a highland for my country to carry out international agricultural exchanges and cooperation and serve the construction of the Silk Road Economic Belt. The "Silk Road Agricultural Education and Science and Technology Innovation Alliance" established by it has a wide influence. It has taken the lead in establishing 8 agricultural science and technology demonstration parks and 4 overseas talent training bases in countries along the Silk Road. It has jointly built the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Agricultural Technology Exchange and Training Demonstration Base with the Yangling Demonstration Zone, led the establishment of the SCO Agricultural Base Modern Agricultural Development Research Institute, established the SCO Agricultural Base Modern Agriculture International Joint Laboratory, and joined the SCO University (leading the modern agriculture direction). The Confucius Classroom of the Baranovichi State University of the school was officially established and put into operation in February 2021.

In the new era and new stage, Northwest A&F University will fully implement the Party's education policy, guided by the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's "reply" to the secretaries, presidents and expert representatives of agricultural universities across the country, conscientiously implement the fundamental task of "establishing morality and cultivating people", always adhere to the two directions of "reaching the sky" and "standing on the ground", continue to implement the three major strategies of talent-strengthening school, internationalization, and informatization, and actively undertake the four major disciplinary missions of ensuring national food security, maintaining ecological civilization, promoting human health, and serving rural revitalization. We will strive to create "five benchmarks" such as excellent agricultural and forestry talent training, leading the future agricultural development in arid and semi-arid areas, helping to implement the rural revitalization strategy, and promoting the "Belt and Road" construction and the deep integration of school and local development, solidly fulfill the historical mission of strengthening agriculture and promoting agriculture, accelerate the construction of a world-class agricultural university with Chinese characteristics, and strive to realize the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation!

(The content of this column is maintained by the Party Committee and President's Office. The data is updated to March 2022)