Ⅰ.Long Education History and Profound Professional Foundation

College of Plant Science and Technology of Huazhong Agricultural University has a long history. With a history tracing back to Hubei Farming School founded in 1898 by Zhang Zhidong, governor of Hubei and Hunan province. After several times of evolvement, the Agronomy Department of six universities, including Agricultural College of Wuhan University, Hubei Agricultural College, Sun Yat-sen University and other three universities combined to form Agricultural College with three majors: Agronomy, Plant Protection and Soil Chemistry. On the basis of these three majors, Department of Agronomy, Department of Plant Protection and Department of Soil Chemistry were set up in 1954. Department of Agronomy and Department of Plant Protection have strong faculty force, and have gathered a group of eminent experts, such as Professor Yang Xinmei, Hu Zhongzi, Zhang Xichang, Liu Houli and so on. With the further development and reformation of the university, in the process of adjusting the departments and disciplines, the original Department of Agronomy and Department of Plant Protection merged into College of Plant Science and Technology in July, 2002.

Ⅱ. Remarkable Advantages of Disciplines and Superior Conditions of Education

The college now has two first-level disciplines: Crop Science and Plant Protection, among which, Crop Science (Crop Genetics and Breeding, Crop Cultivation and Farming System included) was rated as the national key first-level discipline, key construction discipline of the national ‘211’ project, preponderant discipline in Hubei Province, Plant Protection was evaluated as the key discipline in Hubei Province, and Plant Pathology was rated as characteristic discipline of higher education institutions in Hubei Province. The college has 2 primary-discipline doctoral programs, 2 post-doctoral scientific research stations, 12 doctoral programs and 13 Master-degree programs. It recruits undergraduate students in Agronomy, Plant Protection, Plant Science and Technology and Seed Science and Engineering every year. The college enrolls over 1600 full-time undergraduates, 1100 postgraduates and 105 foreign students at the moment.

The college contributed to turn high-quality scientific research platforms and scientific and technological resources into teaching resources. It owned a number of multidisciplinary research base groups, which provided significant support for talents training, including 7 national key laboratories and R&D centers, including National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement, State Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, National Center of Crop Molecular Breeding, National Plant Gene Research Center (Wuhan), National Engineering Research Center of Rapeseed, National Engineering Research Center for Microbe Pesticides, National and Local Joint Engineering Research Center (Hubei) in Medicinal Plant Breeding and Cultivation, and 14 provincial and ministerial key laboratories and R&D centers, such as Rapeseed Engineering and Technology Research Center, The Wuhan Research Branch of the National Rapeseed Genetic Improvement Center, Key Laboratory of Rapeseed Genetic Improvement, Ministry of Agriculture, Key Laboratory of Crop Ecophysiology and Farming System in the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River, Ministry of Agriculture, The Supervision, Inspection& Testing Center of Microbial Products Quality, Ministry of Agriculture (Wuhan), National Indoor Conservation Center of virus-free germplasm of fruit crops, Hubei Crop Disease Monitoring& Safety Control Key Laboratory, Hubei Insect Resource Utilization and Sustainable Pest Management Key Laboratory, Hubei Rice Research Center, Research Center of Pesticide Formulation, Hubei Province, Edible Mushroom Engineering Technology Research Center of Hubei Province, Hubei Provincial Engineering Research Center of Medicinal Plant, etc., as well as 9 School-level Research and Development Centers.