History and Mission

The Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning (IARRP) of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) was established in May 2003 after the reorganization of the Institute of Soils and Fertilizers (established in August 1957) and the Institute of Natural Resources and Regional Planning (established in February 1979). It is a national-level non-profit comprehensive research institute focused on soil fertilizers, agricultural resources utilization and regional development.

Centering on the national strategic needs of modern agricultural development, national food security, and ecological civilization, IARRP targets on the cutting-edge area (or the frontiers) of  agricultural resources and environmental sciences, and aims to become a world-class comprehensive research institution specialized in efficient use, dynamic monitoring, and scientific management of agricultural resources and construction of agricultural ecological environment. It is committed to becoming a new highland of scientific and technological innovation in agricultural resources and environmental protection, a national training base for high-level talents and an international exchange center.

Departments and People

IARRP currently has the following 27 departments and teams:

Seven administrative departments: Administrative Office, Party Committee Office, Human Resources Office, Scientific Affairs Administration Office, Financial Assets Office, Facility Services Office, and Fertilizer Review and Registration Office;

Fourteen scientific research innovation teams in Plant Nutrition, Fertilizer and Fertilization Technology, Improvement and Amelioration of Soil Fertility, Soil-Plant Interactions, Arable Land Quality Monitoring and Soil Care, Non-point Source Pollution Control, Soil Tillage and Cropping Systems, Agricultural Allocation and Regional Development, Resources Utilization and Regional Planning of Agriculture, Agricultural Remote Sensing, Grassland Ecological Remote Sensing, Smart Agriculture, Agricultural Microbial Resources,and Edible Mushroom Genetics, Breeding and Cultivation;

Six service departments: Industrial Development Service Center, Soil Fertilizer Testing Center, Bacterial Fertilizer Testing Center, Periodicals Center, Red Soil Experiment Station in Hengyang, CAAS, and Saline-Alkaline Soil Improvement Experiment Station in Dezhou, CAAS.

As of August 2020, IARRP had a total of 285 employees, including 183 academics, 62 technical and support staff, and 40 administrative staff. Thereare380 master and PhD candidates, including overseas students, as well as 41post-doctoral fellows and 158long-term employees. Among the employees, 68 percent of them have a senior academic title and 67 percent have a PhD degree.

IARRP has one member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and the European Academy of Sciences, respectively. It have also one Distinguished Young Scholar and one Outstanding Young Scholar of the National Science Fund. Seven outstanding individuals and innovative teams in agricultural scientific research were awarded by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of the People’s Republic of China.

Discipline Construction and Scientific and Technological Innovation

IARRP has six research sections which includes plant nutrition and fertilizer, agricultural remote sensing and informatics, agricultural soil, agricultural microbial resources and utilization, agricultural ecology, and agricultural regional development. IARRP has led hundreds of national-level major projects. It achieved a large number of original and international advanced level accomplishments in improving the red soil and yellow soil in South China, saline-alkali land management in North China, mining and utilization of agricultural microbial resources, development of new fertilizers and soil testing formula technology, commercial application of agricultural remote sensing, and regional planning of nationally advantageous agricultural products.

Since its establishment, IARRP has won 25 national science and technology awards and more than 150 state-level science and technology awards. Starting from the Eleventh Five-Year Plan, the institute has been in charge of 31 national science and technology projects including the national science and technology investigations, the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program), the National High-tech R&D Program of China (the 863 Program), and National Key R&D Program of China. It has undertaken over 600 projects supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, published 3,530 academic papers with 1,025 published in SCI and EI journals, obtained 365 national patents including 225 invention patents, gained 453 software copyrights, and formulated 117 national and industrial standards.

Scientific and Academic Conditions

IARRP has one National Engineering Laboratory for Improving Quality of Arable Land and five key laboratories of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the Key Laboratory of Agricultural Remote Sensing (Comprehensive Key Laboratory), the Key Laboratory of Plant Nutrition and Fertilizer (Comprehensive Key Laboratory), the Key Laboratory of Non-Point Source Pollution Control(Professional Key Laboratory),the Key Laboratory of Microbial Resources Collection and Preservation (Professional Key Laboratory), and the Key Laboratory of Grassland Resource Monitoring Evaluation and Innovative Utilization(Professional Key Laboratory).

It also has 10 experiment stations and bases at various levels. Three are national-level field scientific observation and research stations: the National Farmland Ecosystem Observation and Research Station in Qiyang, the National Grassland Ecosystem Observation and Research Station in Hulun Buir, the National Soil Quality Observation and Research Station in Changping. There are three state-level field observation stations of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the Key Field Observation and Experiment Station on Agricultural Resources and Ecological Environment in Dezhou, the Key Field Observation and Experiment Station on Ecological Environment in Qianxi, and the Key Field Observation and Experiment Station on Dry Farming in Luoyang.There are also four experiment stations and bases of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the Field Observation and Experiment Station on Digital Water and Fertilizer in Langfang, the Field Observation and Experiment Station on Ecological Agriculture in Miyun, the Soil and Fertilizer Experiment Base in Jinxian, and the National Mushroom Improvement Center.

A few national and state centers are affiliated to IARRP: the National Center for Quality Supervision and Test of Chemical Fertilizers (Beijing), the Center for Quality Supervision and Testing for Microbial Fertilizers and Mushroom Spawn of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the Agricultural Culture Collection of China (ACCC), the Laboratory of Microbiological Products Quality Safety Risk Assessment of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs(Beijing), and the Laboratory of Quality and Safety Risk Assessment for Agricultural Products from Fertilizer Sources of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs(Beijing).

IARRP has also been recognized as a Grade A professional credit unit for agricultural engineering consulting of the National Development and Reform Commission. Some research institutions and societies are affiliated to it, including the Agricultural Application Department of the National Remote Sensing Center, the Research Department of the Remote Sensing Application Center of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the Agricultural Intellectual Property Center of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the China Agricultural Green Development Research Association,and the Chinese Society of Plant Nutrition and Fertilizer Sciences.

The institute hosts six academic journals: Journal of Plant Nutrition and Fertilizer, Soil and Fertilizer Sciences in China, Chinese Journal of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning, China Agriculture Information, Management for Economy in Agricultural Scientific, and Agricultural Comprehensive Development in China.

International Cooperation and Education Training

IARRP regards international cooperation and exchange as a development strategy for becoming a first-class scientific research institute. Over the past 60 years, it has made great progress in expanding strategic partnerships, conducting international cooperation projects, establishing joint laboratories, and strengthening the introduction and training of high-end talents, which has deeply promoted the talentand disciplinary development.

IARRP has established cooperative partnerships with agricultural research institutions and universities in more than 40 countries and international organizations around the world. It has built seven high level international cooperation platforms: the Sustainable Agro-Ecosystems Joint Research Laboratory between the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the University of New Hampshire of the United States, the Plant Nutrition Innovation Research Joint Laboratory between the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the International Plant Nutrition Institute, the Joint Laboratory for Global Change and Food Security between the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Ghent University, Belgium, the Soil Molecular Ecology Joint Laboratory between the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the Forestry Research Institute of the Royal New Zealand Academy of Sciences, the Sino-German Agricultural Science and Technology Cooperation Platform, the Agricultural Development Research Joint Laboratory between the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the Japan International Institute for Agriculture Sciences, and the Joint Laboratory in Advanced Technologies for Sustainable Agriculture between the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT.

Sincethe twelfth Five-Year Plan, the institute has established over 20 international cooperation projects annually, with average annual funding exceeding 20 million yuan ($2.93 million). It has 30 employees serving for international associations and societies and academic journals. More than 40 internationally renowned experts have been hired as guest professors, and three of its foreign experts have won theFriendshipAward from the Chinese government.

IARRP annually recruit more than 100 nativeand foreignpostgraduates. IARRP has six first-level disciplines such as biology, ecology, agricultural engineering, environmental science and engineering, agricultural resources and environment, and agricultural and forestry economy management, as well as10 second-level disciplines, namely microbiology, ecology, agricultural biological environmental and energy engineering, environmental science, soil science, plant nutrition, agricultural remote sensing, agricultural environmental sciences, agricultural economy management, information technology and digital agriculture and regional development.

IARRP is also a post-doctoral training station in agricultural resources utilization, and serves for postdoctoral fellows in biochemistry, molecular biology, biophysics, crop ecology, plant nutrition, soil science, agricultural water resources utilization, agricultural regional development, agricultural remote sensing, grassland resources utilization, and agricultural microbiology.