The history of Northwest A&F University can be dated back to 1934 when National Northwest Senior College of Agriculture and Forestry was established by Ministry of Education, Republic of China based on an act drafted by Tai Chi-Tao, General Yang Hucheng and Yu Youren in 1932. This was the first national senior college with specialty on agriculture field in the north-west of China and was also the only independent senior college of its kind. Yangling, where the university is located, is believed as the birthplace of Houji, God of Abundant Harvests, and is the area where he taught people how to grow and harvest cereals. Since 1934, 7 academic institutions or universities resided here gradually and it is reputable as Town of Agriculture Sciences. Many achievements have been made by university, such as wheat cultivars Biman 1 (by Zhao, Hongzhang) and Xiaoyan 6 (by Li, Zhensheng) which were dominant wheat cultivars in Yellow River-Huai River Wheat Growth Area and significantly increased wheat quality and yield. The Ministry of Education and Shaanxi Province Government proposed to merge the 7 scientific organizations to 1 new University and finally get approved by State Council in 1999, thus establishing Northwest A&F University.
The university expanded rapidly and has Top 3 research and teaching quality in China’s agriculture universities and is a member of “Project 985” club which is an organization of 39 reputable universities in China. Northwest A&F University's research achievements are dominant in the fields of agriculture biology including wheat breeding, entomology, agriculture resource management, horticulture, plant protection, food science(especially in Enology), forestry and veterinary. Besides, the university is also reputable in agricultural water conservancy, agriculture economics and management, agriculture mechanics and information engineering and ancient agricultural history research. The university has an annual income of around RMB 1.72 billion (around £172 million) in 2011, By April 2013, the university has 1661 teachers and 28964 students
Northwest A&F University provides courses covering agriculture, forestry, engineering, natural science, medicine, management and economy etc. to both native and international students. These courses are provided by 23 academic colleges. Students can choose one college to register and pursue their honor degrees at different levels including Bachelor, Master and PhD. Studentship and scholarship from governments and organizations are available to help students finish their studies.
