Nanjing Agricultural University has a long history. Its predecessor can be traced back to the Department of agricultural natural history of Sanjiang normal school in 1902 and the Department of agronomy of Jinling University in 1914. The university has developed into a national key university directly under the Ministry of education with the advantages and characteristics of agriculture and Life Sciences, the coordinated development of agriculture, science, economics, management, engineering, arts, law and other disciplines, and complete school running levels. It is one of the key construction universities of the national "211 Project" and one of the universities of "985 advantage science innovation platform".

The specialty of plant production in Nanjing Agricultural University originated from the agricultural specialty of Jinling University and Central University in the early 20th century, and it was the cradle of cultivating advanced talents of plant production in China. Through the efforts of several generations, adhering to the Centennial school motto of "honest simple diligence and charity ", it has made great contribution to the cultivation of plant production senior talents. The University has 14 undergraduate majors in plant production, distributed in agricultural, plant protection, horticulture and other colleges, with more than 3000 undergraduate students.

The National Experimental Teaching Center for plant production (hereinafter referred to as the center) was established in 2005. Relying on two national first-class key disciplines of crop science and plant protection, and six national second-class key disciplines of crop cultivation and cultivation, crop genetics and breeding, plant pathology, agricultural insects and pest control, agricultural pharmacy, and vegetable science, the center integrates crop science, agricultural information, Integrated pest control, Horticultural gardening and other experimental teaching center. In 2007, it was approved as the experimental teaching demonstration center of basic courses in Colleges and universities of Jiangsu Province. In 2008, it was listed as the construction site of "national experimental teaching demonstration center" by the Ministry of education. In 2012, it passed the acceptance with excellent results. The center covers an area of 4100 square meters, with 10400 square meters of intelligent greenhouse, 5000 square meters of ordinary greenhouse, 12000 square meters of net room, more than 2700 mu experimental field and more than 70 off campus production, teaching and research bases. Professor Zhang Wei is the director of the center, and Professor Wu Zhen is the deputy director.

With the construction concept of "practice education, collaborative innovation" and the development goal of "open sharing, efficient operation", the center strives to build an experimental teaching center suitable for the world-class Agricultural University. Six experimental teaching platforms have been constructed, plant genetics and breeding and biotechnology, plant production technology, plant protection and ecology, agricultural information and biostatistics, facility agriculture and engineering, general and open etc，including 18 functional laboratories (see the center structure diagram). At present, it undertakes the experimental and practical courses of 14 plant production and related undergraduate majors, It also undertakes the experimental teaching task of some related professional graduate students in various colleges. More than 120 experimental courses can be set up every year, more than 550 experimental projects, more than 200 undergraduates' graduation theses, more than 100 "entrepreneurship and innovation" projects for college students at all levels. The workload of experimental teaching in class is about 150000 person hours / year, the workload of extracurricular practice teaching is about 200000 person hours / year.

The center has always focused on personnel training, constructed a practical teaching mode characterized by "goal orientation, mode innovation, scientific research support, and combination of production and learning", and initially formed a practical teaching system based on four ability training modules, namely "basic experimental training of disciplines, training of professional core skills, comprehensive practical training of industries, and training of innovation and innovation ability".

At present, the full-time teachers of the center include 2 academicians of the Chinese Academy of engineering, 7 Changjiang Scholars, 2 winners of the "Thousand Talents Program", 13 winners of the national fund for Outstanding Young Scholars, 2 national excellent teachers, 2 national model teachers, 5 famous teaching teachers in Jiangsu Province, more than 50 winners of various talent programs in Jiangsu Province, 4 school level "Zhongshan famous teachers" and 10 winners of excellent teaching award. There are more than 360 full-time and part-time experimental teachers, including more than 150 professors and 15 full-time and part-time experimental technicians and managers; The structure of full-time experimental teachers is reasonable. 90% of the teachers have doctor's degree, and 65% of the teachers are under 40 years old.

Since its establishment, the center has won 4 first prizes of national teaching achievements, 3 second prizes, 15 Jiangsu provincial teaching achievements awards, 3 national special specialty construction sites, 1 national excellent teaching team, 2 Jiangsu provincial excellent teaching teams, 6 national excellent courses, 3 National Excellent Video open courses, 5 national excellent resource sharing courses, 5 national "Eleventh Five Year Plan" ，"Twelfth Five Year Plan" and “thirteenth Five Year Plan” there are more than 70 teaching materials, and 9 key teaching materials in Jiangsu Province; It has undertaken more than 200 teaching reform and "quality engineering" projects, including 27 national projects and 36 Jiangsu projects. It has published more than 160 teaching reform papers and more than 100 experimental handouts.

(The data was updated in March 2021)