The faculty of history of science and technology is a professionaleducational institution strongly committed to the study and inheritance ofChinese agricultural history and culture. Its earliest history can be tracedback to 1920, when the Agricultural History Archive of the University ofNanjing was founded. In July 1955, the Ministry of Agriculture formallyapproved the establishment of the Institution of Chinese Agricultural Heritage.In June 2001, related disciplines were integrated and restructured into theInstitution of Chinese Agricultural Civilization, which is the onlynational-level research institution specializing in agricultural history andculture.

The faculty has two provincial research bases (Chinese AgriculturalHistory Research Center of Jiangsu Higher Education Philosophy and SocialSciences Key Research Base, Intangible Cultural Heritage Research Base ofJiangsu Province), and six research centers (Center of Agricultural CulturalHeritage Preservation, Center of Crop History, Center of Animal Husbandry andVeterinarian History, Center of Chinese and Foreign Agricultural CulturalExchange, Center of Modern Agricultural History, and Center of theDigitalization of Agricultural Historical Documents). The faculty has set upthe editorial department for the Journal of Agricultural History of China, andhas established Chinese Agricultural Civilization website and the InformationResource Center of Chinese Agricultural Heritage.

The faculty’s scientific research focuses on agricultural science andtechnology history, agricultural cultural heritage preservation,agro-ecological environment history, Chinese and foreign agricultural exchangehistory, digitalization of agricultural literature, and development strategyfor agricultural science and technology as its main research areas. Since itsestablishment, the faculty has achieved considerable results, including 613volumes of excerpts on agricultural history, 680 volumes of local chronicles ofagricultural history. The faculty has published over 120 research monographsand over 1300 academic essays, and reviewed, annotated and arranged 18 ancientagricultural books. Since1987, the faculty have won over 10 awards that areprovincial-level or higher, In addition, five scholarly books have been translatedinto Japanese and English and have been published.

In 1981, the faculty was approved by the State Council as anauthorized center for conferring Master’s degrees in Agricultural History, andwas approved in 1986 as China’s only authorized center for conferring PhDdegrees in Agricultural History. It was approved as an agricultural historystation for agronomy postdoctoral research in 1992, and was assessed to be akey discipline of the Ministry of Agriculture in 1993. After the disciplineadjustment by the Ministry of Education1997, Agricultural History wascategorized as a first-level discipline in Science and Technology History andwas authorized to confer science or agriculture degrees as well as doctoraldegrees in this first-level discipline of Science and Technology History. In1998, it was assessed to be a science and technology research station forscience postdoctoral research station. Today it is a key first-level disciplinein Jiangsu Province and a key discipline cultivation center in China.

As a leading center for cultivating talents in Chinese agriculturalhistory, this discipline center has a group of knowledgeable and well-publishedexperts and scholars. Presently, there are 10 full-time professors and doctoralsupervisors, 8 associate professors and master student supervisors, and 5research management staff, forming a properly-structured academic echelon.Since 1981, it has nurtured many graduate students, including over 100 doctoralstudents. Graduates usually undertake works such as scientific research andeducation, and many of them have become scientific leaders and made significantcontributions to the study of agricultural history and culture.

The faculty has always made academic exchange sits priority. Todayit is the affiliated institution of the Professional Committee of AgronomyHistory of Chinese Society for the History of Science and Technology, theProfessional Committee of Animal Husbandry and Veterinarian History of ChineseAgricultural History Association, and the Research Society of Jiangsu’sAgricultural History. In terms of world academic exchanges, it has establishedexcellent cooperative relationships with institutes and scholars ofagricultural history research in the U.K., U.S., France, Japan, Korea, Canada,the Netherlands, as well as in the regions of Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Presently, the institution has jointly foundedthe NAU-PU Joint Center for China Studies with Purdue University in the U.S.,the Joint Center of Origin and Diffusion of Agriculture with the University ofReading in the U.K., the “Research Center for the Comparative Study ofSino-Japanese Agricultural History” with related institutions in Japan, and the“Sino-Korean Cultural Exchange Center” with the Society of Korean AgriculturalHistory. It has a long-standing cooperative relationship with the NeedhamResearch Center at Cambridge University, and has jointly established the“Collaborative Innovation Center for the Transformation and Farmer Developmentof China’s Villages” with Center for Farmers’ Development of ZhejiangAgriculture and Forestry University as well as the Rural Economy ResearchCenter of the Agriculture Ministry.