The College of Agriculture, Nanjing Agricultural University is one of the earliest departments of agricultural sciences established in China. In the course of more than 110 years of schooling, a large number of founders and pioneers of agricultural science and technology worked in the college, including 11 academicians: Jin Shanbao, Feng Zefang, Xu Guanren, Bao Wenkui, Cai Xu, Dai Songen, Zhuang Qiaosheng, Lu Liangshu, Liu Dajun, Gai Junyi, Cheng Shunhe, and some famous botanists and crop breeders: Zou Bingwen, Guo Tanxian, Ma Yuhua, Wang Shou and so on. The college has also trained a large number of provincial/ ministerial leaders and well-known scholars.

Over the years, the college adheres to the development path of connotation, characteristics, science and harmony, and builds a talent training system with advanced concepts, complete levels and mature mechanisms. It has built a faculty team with reasonable structure, cooperation and innovation. With the joint efforts of all the teachers and students, the college has achieved remarkable research results with wide application coverage and obvious socio-economic-ecological benefits, to lead the developments of crop science discipline. The college has 162 faculty and staff members, including 2 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, one expert of " Thousand Talents Program", 2 distinguished professor of “Changjiang (Yangtze River) Scholar”，4 distinguished professor of “National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars”，62 professors and 45 associated professors. There are 3 undergraduate majors including agronomy, seed science and engineering, Jinshanbao experimental class (plant production), 3 academic master majors in Crop Genetic and Breeding, Genetics, Crop Cultivation and Farming System, 2 full-time professional degree master majors in Crop Science and Crop Seed Industry, and 6 doctoral majors in Crop genetics and breeding, Genetics, Crop cultivation and farming system, Seed Science & Technology, Bioinformatics, Applied Plant Genomics, Eco-agricultural Science and Technology and Crop Informatics.

Currently, the college hosts three national-level research platforms, the State Key Laboratory of Crop Genetics & Germplasm Enhancement, the National Center for Soybean Improvement (Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetic Improvement of Soybean, Ministry of Agriculture), and National Engineering and Technology Center for Information Agriculture, and also thirteen provincial/ministerial-level platforms. In the college Crop Science is a national first-level key discipline, including two national key second-level disciplines, Crop Genetics and Breeding, and Crop Cultivation and Farming. Both Crop Science and Agricultural Informatics are superiority disciplines in Jiangsu Province. Since the national 11th Five-Year (2011-2015) plan, the college has won 7 national Science and Technology Awards, including one first prize and six second, and also 12 provincial Scientific and Technology Awards, and there were 47 varieties of various crops certificated, 23 varieties protected by plant varieties protection (PVP), 190 national invention patents, 86 software copyrights, and 20 provincial standards formulated. There were 1074 SCI papers published in high-level journals such as Nature and Nature Biotechnology. The research achievements were rated as “Top Ten Scientific and Technological Progress of Chinese Universities” in 2010 and 2014 twice. The annual research funding is about 100 million yuan. 

The College has established long-term cooperative relationships with more than 30 universities and institutions abroad, including "2+2", "1+2+1" joint programs of undergraduates with Cornell University, Illinois University, Oregon State University and University of Florida in USA, Wageningen University in the Netherland, and Chiba University in Japan. Each year, more than 150 professors and scholars from various countries persons visit to college for their academic research and exchange.