Northwest A&F University

Northwest A&F University

西北农林科技大学
Motto	诚朴勇毅
Motto in English	Be honest, modest, brave and resolute
Type	National University
Established	20 April 1934
Endowment	358 million RMB (research only,Year 2012)
President	Professor Qixin Sun(孙其信）
Students	28964
Location	Yangling, Shaanxi Province, P.R.China
Campus	Urban, 3,944,638 m²(3.94 km²)
Colors	Green
Nickname	西农(pinyin: xī nóng)
Website	http://www.nwafu.edu.cn or http://www.nwsuaf.edu.cn

Northwest A&F University (NWAFU, A&F referring to Agriculture and Forestry; simplified Chinese: 西北农林科技大学; pinyin: Xīběi Nónglín Kējì Dàxué; traditional Chinese: 西北農林科技大學), is a national key university located in Yangling Agricultural Hi-tech Industries Demonstration Zone, Shaanxi Province, P.R.China. The university has an old and abandoned name called Northwest Sci-tech University of Agriculture and Forestry, NWSUAF for short, which is still kept in the domain name of the university's official website.

The history of Northwest A&F University can be dated back to 1934 when National Northwest Senior College of Agriculture and Forestry (simplified Chinese: 国立西北农林专科学校; traditional Chinese: 國立西北農林專科學校) 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 speciality 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 ) 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.