The College of Horticulture

The college of Horticulture, one of the most historical colleges of Northwest A&F University, was founded in 1934 as “Horticulture Group of Northwest A&F College”. It began to recruit undergraduate students in 1936, Master students in 1961 and Ph.D. students from the year 1986. It started to accept students from overseas since 2008. In the year of 2000, 3 institutions, including “Department of Horticulture, Northwest Agricultural University”, “Shaanxi Institute of Pomology” and “Shaanxi Institute of Vegetable and Flowers”, which were also located in Yangling, were merged together to form “College of Horticulture” of Northwest A&F University.


Our college includes 5 teaching departments: Pomology, Vegetable Science, Protected Horticultural Engineering and Science, Ornamental Horticulture and Tea Science. College of Horticulture is also equipped with 1 Laboratory Center, 1 National Experimental Teaching Demonstration Center, 1 National Key Laboratory, 3 National Research Centers, 1 National Germplasm Resource Nursery, 3 Provincial Key laboratories, 4 Provincial Technology Research Centers, 1 Provincial Innovation Base, 2 International Technology and Cooperation Bases, 1 Provincial Research Society,3 University Based Research Institutions and 20 Professional Experimental Demonstration Bases.


Our college is qualified for level-I doctoral degree program of Horticultural Science and 4 level-II doctoral and master's degree programs for Pomology, Vegetable, Tea Science, and Protected Horticultural Engineering and Science. Our college is the admitted center for Post-doctoral Studies. Pomology is the state-level key discipline. Pomology, Vegetable and Tea Science are Shaanxi Provincial Key disciplines. Our college has undergraduate programs for 3 majors: Horticulture, Protected Horticultural Engineering and Science and Tea Science.


Our college enjoys excellent academic and research capabilities. College staff include accomplished senior professors and researchers together with young innovative academic leaders who are on the cutting edge of their research fields. There are 176 full-time faculty members, of which 54 are professors and senior researchers, 53 are associate professors and junior researchers. Among the professors, 33 are doctoral tutors, 42 are master tutors. Professors include: 3 Academicians of Chinese Academy of Engineering (professors by courtesy), 1 academic dean, 1 chair professor, 1 guest professor, 1 “Then Thousands Talent Program” winner, 1  "Award for State-level Master Teacher" winner, 3 “National Young Talent Program” winners, 1 “Outstanding Youth Fund of National Natural Science Foundation of China” winner, 1 winner of " Cross-century Outstanding Talent" by the Ministry of Education (MOE), 5 scholars in the " Program for New Century Excellent Talents" by MOE, and 15 professors or innovation team with outstanding contributions at ministerial or provincial levels.


Currently, our college has 1593 students, including 930 graduate students and 763 undergraduate students. Since 2000, 350 Ph.D. students, 2370 Master students, 4000 undergraduate students and more than 3850 management and technical cadres graduated from College of Horticulture. To fulfill the needs of our society, our college also offers correspondence courses at different levels and provided short-term, medium-term and long-term agricultural education and technical training courses all year round.


Since the foundation of our university, our college has been obtained 26 teaching achievement awards, including 1 national award of teaching achievements and 6 teaching achievement awards at provincial levels. Our college has 1 national teaching team, 1 national specialty major, 1 provincial brand major, 1 provincial specialty major, 2 provincial first-class majors. Our college was also awarded with 1 national quality course, 1 Shaanxi College Innovation and Entrepreneurship Education Course, 2 provincial first-class courses, 8 provincial elaborate courses, 6 online open courses, 5 English courses, 1 bi-lingual course and 2 summer courses tutored by foreign teachers. We have edited 38 textbooks since 2007 including: 13 National Planning Textbooks in the 11th Five-Year Plan, 7 National Planning Textbooks in the 12th Five-Year Plan and 8 National Planning Textbooks in the 13th Five-Year Plan.


At present, our college carries out 180 research projects at different levels with research funding around 70 million Yuan. Since the foundation of our college, it has obtained 83 scientific research achievements at or above the provincial and ministerial levels, including 3 second-class national scientific and technological progress awards and 13 provincial scientific and technological progress awards. At mean time, 236 new varieties have been bred; 1107 SCI and EI papers have been published, 192 patents have been authorized and 120 books have been published.


Our college adheres to open education, actively expanding international cooperation and communication in science, technology and education, and strives to improve the level of international education. Since the foundation of the university, more than 990 domestic and international experts and scholars have been invited to give lectures or conduct cooperative research; more than 730 of our staff have gone to more than 20 countries including the United States, Britain, Germany, and Japan for cooperative research or academic communication. More than 120 undergraduate students have gone abroad for further education after their graduation. The accumulated number of graduate students going abroad has reached 95, and more than 40 international students have been trained in our college.


Since the foundation of our college, generations of teachers and students have been adhering to the school motto of "Sincerity, Simplicity, Courage, and Perseverance", inheriting and carrying forward the fine tradition of "Undertaking the country’s duty, Solving people's livelihood and Advocating science", and actively promote the strategy of revitalizing the college by science and education and strengthening the institute by talents. All undertakings have achieved historic leaping development and have made outstanding contributions to the development of our country's horticultural science and education. In order to further improve the level of discipline construction and achieve the goal of a world-class horticultural college, the teachers and students at our college are working harder for the development of our country's horticultural science and education with full enthusiasm, innovation, and determination!