The China Agricultural University (CAU) is a leading agricultural education and research institution in China. It is a merger of the former Beijing Agricultural University (BAU) and Beijing Agricultural Engineering university (BAEU) in 1995. The history of the University traces back to 1905 as the College of Agriculture in the Capital University (the present Peking University), the oldest university in China. The University is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Agriculture. The University boasts 6 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, 5 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Engineering Sciences, 223 professors, and 617 associate professors. The number of students has kept rising over the past years. Currently, 1,037 graduate students and 6,556 undergraduate students are enrolled in 15 colleges in the University. The University Library is one of the most important libraries for agricultural sciences in China. With its new building completed in 1990, the Library is a proud of the University for its modern and reader-oriented design and the rich collection of agricultural literature. The Library has a total floor area of 12,955 square meters with a holding capacity of 2.5 million volumes. The current collection is about 1.4 million volumes including 3,500 periodicals. The National Foreign Textbook Center for Agriculture is affiliated to the Library.

In the University, there are an experiment farm and an experiment station

The Zhuozhou Experiment Farm This Farm is located in Zhuozhou Country, Hebei Province, 80 kilometers to the Southwest of Beijing. It covers a total area of 1,550 hectares, including 870 hectares of farm land, 340 hectares of orchard garden and forest. The Farm is divided into three subordinate companies, specialized in agriculture, forest, animal husbandry. The farm's main products are seeds, seedlings, breeding chickens, breeding pigs, fodder, fruits, rice and seed-coating chemicals. The Farm also carries out teaching and research activities. It receives students for various practices. With its good facilities and rich resources, the Experiment Farm offers teachers and students a good base to develop scientific research in agricultural demonstration and extension.

The Changping Experiment Station The Experiment Station is situated in the Changping County in the north suburb of Beijing, 14 kilometers away from the West Campus. It covers total 45 hectares of land for practical training, research and other purposes (24 hectares for cropping and 6 hectares of orchard). The Station also has a three-generations breed chicken farm and a breeding farm for a special Chinese species of small pigs. As an important base for teaching and research, the Station takes over many research programs of the University every year. Students with different majors often come here to do practical training. In addition, quality seed of wheat and corn varieties are extended to many counties across the country every year. Quality chicken breed such as "Nongda Brown" layer breed has been adopted by more than 70 large chicken-breeding farms over 29 provinces throughout the country. The Chinese small species pig raised in the Station has proven to be a kind of desirable animal for experimental and medical purposes.

The University has some key laboratories, they are: The National Key Laboratory of Agricultural Biotechnolog, THe Open Laboratory of Plant Physiology and Biochemistry, The Laboratory of Soil and Water, The Lab of Integrated Pest Management Information and Software Technology.