The Institute of Chinese Agricultural History and Heritage (hereinafter referred to as Institute of Agricultural History) of South China Agricultural University is an important research center of the history of science and technology in China, whose origin can be traced back to the research on agricultural history of National Sun Yat sen University since the 1920s.

1. Establishment of agricultural history research in South China

  In 1926, Professor Ding Ying, known as the father of Chinese rice science, discovered wild rice in the suburb of Guangzhou, which led to his systematic research on the origin of crops, especially rice, and influenced later scholars Liang Jiamian and Wang Xingrui to carry out relevant research. They successively published Chinese crop primordia and other articles, laying a solid foundation for the future development of agricultural history research in South China.

  In May 1944, Dr. Joseph Needham, a famous British scholar, visited the Agricultural College of Sun Yat sen University during the war and paid close attention to Liang Jiamian's agricultural history research, which greatly encouraged the agricultural history research in South China, which was in its infancy. Liang Jiamian, who was in charge of the book work of the Agricultural College of Sun Yat sen University, conceived the idea of establishing the Chinese agricultural literature collection and drafted the general principles.

  In 1955, the central Ministry of Agriculture held a symposium, calling for sorting out the agricultural heritage of the motherland to serve agricultural production. With the support of Ding Ying, Liang Jiamian established special collection room of Chinese agricultural literature heritage in the library of South China Agricultural College. The establishment of the special collection room marks the beginning of the establishment of agricultural history research in South China, and promotes the collection, collection and research of agricultural documents. Data construction has increased rapidly from the first 3-5 volumes of ancient books to 1000 volumes and 10000 volumes; a number of research achievements that have had an impact on academic circles at home and abroad have been published successively, such as the origin and evolution of Chinese cultivated rice, which has been highly praised by famous scholars in the scientific and historical circles such as Zhu Kezhen and Xin Shuqi, especially Ding Ying's research on the origin and evolution of Chinese cultivated rice in the world Has a significant impact.

2. Golden decade for the development of the research lab

       In April 1978, the special collection office developed into a research office, renamed China agricultural historical heritage research office, and became a Research Office approved by the Ministry of agriculture two years later. Liang Jiamian, the main founder of Chinese agricultural history, served as the office director, Xu Yanqian, a famous forester, and Qi Jingwen, a famous agronomist, served as the deputy director, and a group of experts and scholars with expertise successively served as or concurrently served as researchers, such as Huang Changxian. They have made achievements in the history of agricultural science and technology, the history of agricultural plants, the research of ancient agricultural books and other fields in China, and published Xu Guangqi's Chronicle, China In ancient times, there were hundreds of academic works, such as the understanding and utilization of nitrogen fixing plants. The historical manuscript of Chinese agricultural science and technology, edited by Liang Jiamian, was hailed as a landmark work in the field of agricultural history, and won six awards, including the third prize of national science and technology progress. This period is the golden decade for the development of the research lab.

       In terms of personnel training, the research office began to recruit agricultural history postgraduates in 1980 and presided over the formulation of the first agricultural history postgraduates training program. During this period, the Agricultural History Office created several domestic peers first, that is, the first graduate student of agricultural history in China; the first academic journal of agricultural history after the Cultural Revolution was founded, agricultural history research; the first international conference of agricultural history in China, the Southern vegetation international academic seminar, was held for the first time.

       In 1986, Professor Zhou Zhaoji took over the post of Liang Jiamian, the retired director of the agricultural history office. Under the dilemma of the brain drain in Guangdong universities, he recruited talents and led the agricultural history team to march forward difficultly. He published works such as the history of plant physiology in China on high-level journals such as China Social Science and kept his own in the fields of agricultural science and technology history, regional agricultural history, forestry history, Agricultural Archaeology, etc Research features and advantages.

3.Discipline construction to a higher level

       In 1998, Ni Genjin took over the post of director of the agricultural history office from Zhou Zhaoji, who was retired from rongtui. After entering the 21st century, the improvement of the general environment and the continuous efforts of the indoor colleagues make the agricultural history office more active and prosperous, mainly in the following four aspects.

       First, the discipline construction has stepped up to a higher level. It not only established the only history department of Agricultural University in China on the basis of the Agricultural History Office, but also established the independent secondary discipline doctor's point of crop history. At the same time, it has established the research centers of agricultural culture and rural tourism, Lingnan ecological history, etc. across departments. 

  Second, in recent years, the agricultural history discipline has undertaken more than 20 major national social science projects, such as integrated research and comprehensive research of Lingnan animal and plant agricultural historical data, National Social Science Foundation, provincial and ministerial scientific research projects, published more than 20 works, such as notes on saving wasteland and more than 300 papers, not only consolidating the original research position, but also opening up agriculture Ecological history, rural social history, water conservancy social history, agricultural science and technology exchange history and other new fields. 

       Third, academic exchanges have become more frequent. Nearly 10 international and domestic academic conferences have been held, including the 10th East Asian International Symposium on agricultural history and the Symposium on biological history and agricultural history. The degree of academic internationalization has been greatly enhanced. Fourth, the construction of materials is more complete. After decades of construction, the special collection library of agricultural history office now has 80000 books. It is famous for its rich collection of ancient agricultural books at home and abroad, and is the most abundant collection of ancient agricultural books in the world.

       In May 2016, with the approval of the school leaders, the agricultural history office changed its name to China agricultural historical heritage research institute, Ni genjin as the director, Wang Fuchang and Zhao Yanping as the deputy directors. In June of the same year, the special library of agricultural history institute was rated as key protection unit of ancient books in Guangdong Province.

In 1988, the famous historian of science and technology, Dr. Joseph Needham (first from the right), visited the Agricultural History Office and communicated with Mr. Liang Jiamian (second from the left) in the library