Founded in 2018, the School of Agricultural Sciences at Zhengzhou University, was jointly established by Zhengzhou University and the Institute of Cotton Research of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Focusing on the national grain, cotton, and oil security strategy and the scientific and technological needs of Henan province, the school mainly conducts scientific research on agricultural basic theories and key technologies, as well as cultivating high-level talent.
The school has a Department of Crop Science, Department of Biotechnology and Engineering, an industrial research institute, and five innovation centers for crop genetic improvement, mutagenesis breeding, synthetic biology, smart agriculture green production, and rural vitalization.
According to the strategy of "cotton leading, radiation expanding, four major directions, and collaborative innovation", the school focuses on synthetic biology (mainly related to natural products), mutagenesis breeding, crop genetic improvement, and smart agriculture green production research, taking major crops, livestock, poultry, fruits, vegetables, and microorganisms as research subjects.
The school currently has more than 70 professional and technical personnel, all of whom have doctoral degrees and about 40 of whom have senior professional titles.
The school has a second-level doctoral degree program in crop biology and two master's degree programs in crop science and biotechnology & engineering.
In the past five years, the school has helped Zhengzhou University's three disciplines of agricultural science, botany & zoology, and microbiology enter the top 1 percent globally in the Essential Science Indicators (ESI) rankings.
The school has obtained 32 National Natural Science Foundation projects (including three key joint fund projects).