Introduction to School of Pastoral Agriculture Science and Technology of Lanzhou University

School of Pastoral Agriculture Science and Technology of Lanzhou University was formerly known as Gansu Institute of Grassland Ecology, which was founded by Academician Ren Jizhou in 1981. In May 2001, it was named Institute of Grassland Ecology, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Merged with Lanzhou University in April 2002, the School of Pastoral Agriculture Science and Technology was established. The names Gansu Institute of Grassland Ecology and Institute of Grassland Ecology of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences remain in use.

Professor Nan Zhibiao, Academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering, is the first president. In the third and fourth round of national discipline evaluation, its first-class discipline “Grass Science” ranked first and A+, respectively. In 2017, the Grass Science discipline of Lanzhou University was among the national “Double First-class” Discipline list.

The college primarily focuses on basic and applied research in the field of grassland science, while strengthening the transformation of scientific research achievements. The main research directions are as follows. 1. Grassland agroecosystem, including the study of the structure and function, evolution and regulation, and management expert system of grassland agroecosystems. 2. Grassland resource management and remote sensing monitoring, including the study of grassland succession and classification, grazing management, cultivation and improvement of natural grassland, restoration of degraded grassland, grassland resource investigation and monitoring, prediction and forecast of natural disasters in pastoral areas, etc. 3. Management of cultivated grassland, including the study of mixed grassland sowing, forage cultivation with high quality and yield, grass field rotation, etc. 4. Forage plant protection, including ecological control of toxic grasses, rodents, insects and diseases, microorganism-grass-livestock interactions, etc. 5. Stress physiology and molecular biology of forage plants, including the study of the physiological and molecular mechanisms of grass plants to adapt to environmental conditions such as high altitude, low temperature, drought, salinization etc. in western China, as well as screening and transforming functional genes. 6. Forage plant breeding and seed science, including cultivating new and native forage varieties with high resistance, quality and yield for the cold, dry, high-altitude and salinized regions of China, studying the characteristics, physiological functions and life activities of grass seeds, seed processing, storage and quality inspection, etc. 7. Grassland ecological chemistry, mainly studying the law of matter and energy movement of grassland systems with agricultural management measures, and exploring the mechanism and way of improving its use efficiency. 8. Ruminant nutrition and feed science, including grass-animal interface ecology, ruminant nutrition on the Tibetan Plateau, development of grass-feed resources and animal product safety, ruminant molecular nutrition and biotechnology. 9. Turf science, mainly studying the design, construction and management of lawns and playgrounds, turf grass, native grass and lawn physiology and ecology, etc. 10. Grassland economics, mainly studying the economic characteristics of grassland systems, forage and livestock trades, society and policies in farming and pastoral areas, production decision-making behavior of farmers and herdsmen, animal ethics, scientific history of grassland science, etc.

The college has set up a mobile grass science postdoctoral research station, a first-class doctoral program of grass science and animal husbandry, a first-class master’s program in crop science and plant protection, a second-class master’s degree program in agricultural economics and management, 5 agricultural majors, including agronomic and seed industry, agricultural management, rural development, animal husbandry and resource use and plant protection, and 3 undergraduate programs, including grassland science, grassland economic management, and animal science. The grassland major has made the list of national first-class undergraduate majors, and is selected as a provincial key disciplines and research and talent training bases in Gansu Province. The agriculture and forestry economics and management major has made the provincial first-class undergraduate majors. The college has formed a complete science group supporting the scientific development of grassland.

The college has the only 2 academicians of grassland science of Chinese Academy of Engineering and 1 winner of national outstanding youth science fund, 1 distinguished professor in the “Changjiang River Scholars Program”, 2 chief scientists in the “973” program, 2 “National Hundred-thousand-ten-thousand” talents, 2 “Ten Thousand Program” entrepreneurial talents, 1 young scholar in the “Changjiang River Scholars Program”, 3 recipients of the Outstanding Youth Fund, 7 recipients of the Special government allowance of the State Council, 5 recipients of the New Century Excellent Talents of the Ministry of Education, 1 recipient of the Top Leading Talents of Gansu Province, 12 recipients of the Leading Talents of Gansu Province, 2 recipients of the Flying Scholars of Gansu Province. There are 194 faculty members, including 48 professors (2 first-class professors and 8 second-class professors), 1 young professor, 16 young researchers, 29 associate professors (associate researchers), 10 lecturers (research assistants), 28 post-doctoral fellows, 32 experimental technicians and 10 book editors; 56 doctoral supervisors (13 part-time supervisors) and 109 master supervisors (26 part-time supervisors); 14 elite professors, 26 visiting professors and 68 part-time professors. Among the teaching staff, 97% possess doctorate degrees, and 67% of full-time teachers have worked or studied abroad for more than one year; 7 of them hold posts in international academic organizations and 6 are editorial board members of SCI journals.

The college is equipped with the only State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agroecosystem in China, the International Joint Research Center of Grassland Agroecology, and the National “111” Grassland Agriculture Innovation and Talent Introduction Base. It has jointly established with the Chinese Academy of Engineering and Lanzhou university to build the China Grassland Industry Development Strategy Research Center, Grassland Science National Experimental Teaching Demonstration Center, Key Laboratory of Animal Husbandry Innovation of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Forage and Turfgrass Seed Quality Supervision and Inspection Testing Center of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Feed and Feed Additives Effectiveness and Tolerance Evaluation Laboratory of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Engineering Technology Research Center for Ecological Restoration and Utilization of degraded Grassland in northwest China of National Forestry And Grassland Administration, National Grass Variety Regional Experimental Station (West), Engineering Research Center of Grassland Agriculture of Ministry of Education, Gansu Provincial Science and Technology Innovation Base, Plant-Eating Animal Husbandry Industry Technology Center of Gansu Province, Qualified Grass Germplasm Nursery (Linze) of Gansu Province, Science and Technology Platform of Grassland Biological Resources and Herbivorous Animal Production International Science and Technology Cooperation Base of Gansu Province, and 15 field observation stations and demonstration bases, such as Qingyang National Field Station for Grassland Agroecology, Linze Grassland Agroecology Test Station, Yuzhong Grassland Agroecology Test Station, Jingtai Grassland Agroecology Test Station, Qilian Mountain Dalong Ecological Monitoring and Research Station, Alxa Desert-oasis Grassland Observation and Research Station.

There are 10 research institutes, including Institute of Grassland Protection, Institute of Grass Seed and Plant Breeding, Institute of Grassland Ecology, Institute of Agricultural Grassland Research, Institute of Grassland System Element Utilization and Management, Institute of System Regulation of Grass and Livestock Production, Institute of Ruminants, Institute of Stress Physiology and Genetic Improvement of Grass Plants, Institute of Grassland Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System, Institute of Grassland Systems Analysis and Social Development.

Since 2002, the projects hosted by the college has won the second prize of National Science and Technology Progress award, which is the fourth national Science and Technology Progress Award project hosted by the college, and the 11th award-winning project in the field of grass in China. Meanwhile, the college has won 1 First Natural Science Prize of Gansu Province, 2 First Scientific and Technological Progress Prize of Gansu Province, 4 second and third prizes respectively, one provincial patent inventor award, one provincial technological invention second prize, one provincial patent second prize and one provincial patent third prize respectively. Since 2017, it has undertaken 309 scientific research projects of all kinds, 27 key projects at national, provincial and ministerial level, including 2 national “973” projects, 2 “863” projects, 5 science and technology supporting projects, 2 key R&D projects, 53 achievements transformation projects, 2 key projects of the National Natural Science Fund, 2 projects of the Outstanding Young Science Foundation, 8 international cooperation projects. It has obtained 61 national invention patents, 4 international patents, 96 utility model patents and 61 computer software Copyrights. The college has selected and bred 10 new varieties, including Cleistogenes songorica cv. Tenggeli, Altay Apocynum venetum L., Altay Poacynum hendersonii (Hook. f.) Woods, Aconitum tanguticum, Hordeum brevisubulatum cv. Hexi, Achnatherum inebrians cv. Qilian, Zygophyllum xanthoxylum ‘Tenggeli’, Stipa bungeana ‘Longdong’, Artemisia sphaerocephala ‘Tenggeli’ and Lespedeza potaninii ‘Tenggeli’. It participated in editing 16 books and published 1566 papers, including 596 SCI journal papers.

The college has won the only Special Prize of National Teaching Achievement in grassland science in China and national excellent doctoral dissertation. It owns one of the two grassland science national teaching teams, undertaking 2 of the 6 national high quality courses in grassland science (grassland resources investigation and planning, grassland protection), as well as 3 provincial excellent courses (grass breeding science, grassland ecological chemistry, grassland informatics), 2 national characteristic specialty construction points and undergraduate teaching quality projects, 1 national first-class course (grassland cultivation), 1 provincial first-class course (indoor flowers and plants cultivation technology and decorative scenery), and 1 pilot project of virtual teaching and research room of the Ministry of Education (grassland cultivation).

The college has signed cooperative agreements with research institutions, universities and companies of over 10 countries, including Australia, the United States and New Zealand, to carry out extensive international sci-tech cooperation and academic exchanges. It has the only national “111” Grassland Agriculture Innovation Introduction Base of Grassland Science in China. Massey University in New Zealand funded the establishment of Professor Ren Jizhou Scholarship to encourage exchanges between students and scholars of the two countries. Two specially invited foreign experts of the college have won the “Friendship Award” of the Chinese government, one foreign cooperation expert has won the National International Science and Technology Cooperation Award, and one specially invited foreign expert has won the Dunhuang Award of Gansu Province.

Academician Nan Zhibiao founded “Grassland Research”, the first English scientific and technological journal in the field of grassland science in China, which was selected as a new issue of 2020 High Starting Point Project of the Chinese Scientific and Technological Journal Excellent Action Plan. Its hosted journals Acta Prataculturae Sinica and Grassland Science are both with impact factors in the world’s Q1 zone, T1 agroforestry field journals, Chinese core periodicals, core journals and international Chinese science citation database CABI source journals. Their impact factor rank 1 and 217 among all 2070 Chinese science and technology journals, respectively, and 1 and 2 among the animal husbandry and veterinary journals, respectively. By 2021, Acta Prataculturae Sinica has been awarded “One hundred Outstanding Academic Journals in China” for 15 times, “Top 100 Newspapers and Periodicals” twice in a row by the General Administration of Press and Publication, and “China High-quality Scientific and Technological Periodicals” for 5 times in a row. (Updated March 1, 2022)