Founded in 1958, nearly 50 years ago, Zhejiang A&F University (ZAFU) is a comprehensive university directly under the auspices of Zhejiang Province offering bachelor and master degrees in agriculture, technology, science, literature, management, law, economics, medicine, etc. and enrolling international students as well as students from Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan.

ZAFU, located in Lin’an City (west of the popular tourist destination Hangzhou) has Yijin and East Lake campuses covering nearly 167 hectares with 550,000 square meters of building space. Its modern buildings and facilities in a setting of great natural beauty, surrounded by mountains and water, make ZAFU a most suitable place for learning, teaching, and conducting research. The campus combined with the botanical garden comprise an ecological environment with functions of teaching, scientific research, and biodiversity conservation.

ZAFU has 16 teaching schools, colleges and division: School of Agriculture and Food Science, School of Forestry and Biotechnology, School of Environmental Science and Technology, School of Engineering, School of Landscape Architecture, School of Economics and Management, School of Humanities, School of Information and Engineering, School of Foreign Languages, School of Tourism and Health, School of Tea Culture, School of Science, School of Art Design, International College, Continuing Education College and Division of Physical & Military Training. It has 47 undergraduate majors, among them 1 national characteristic major and 8 key provincial major. ZAFU also has national excellent subjects, 11 provincial excellent subjects and 1 Provincial Experimental Teaching Demonstrate Center. It is authorized to award 1 first-class master’s degree in forestry engineering and 15 second-class master's degrees in science, technology, literature, management, agriculture, law etc.

ZAFU boasts a 1,500 strong team of staff and faculty, of which 900 are teachers, two are shared academicians, one is elected among the national new century talent pool, two are professors specially engaged by the provincial government, 54 are included in the 151 talent-cultivating program, 18 are discipline leading teachers among the province-wide universities, 195 are qualified to tutor graduates, more than 40 are provincial outstanding teachers, 1 is entitled as prominent teacher in term of professional ethics by the state.

In addition to one provincial discipline of utmost importance, seven key disciplines at the provincial level, and eight disciplines with qualification to accredit assistant professorship, there are also highly developed research institutes, such as a Forest-breeding Center of the State Forestry Administration, a provincial key lab, an engineering center, and two provincial key Science and Technology Innovation Service Platforms. In the past five years, about 1,527 projects have been carried out at the university. Research funding has reached 194 million RMB, with more than 25 projects receiving national and provincial awards. Among them, Production Technology and Application of Sliced Bamboo Veneer won Second Prize for the National Technology Invention Award in 2007. In addition, ZAFU also won Second Prize for the National Technology Progress Award as a key participant in another project. Moreover, ZAFU has won First Prize for Science and Technology Awards at the provincial level for three consecutive years. Up to now, among the 2,426 academic articles published, 170 pieces have been collected by three search systems, such as SCI, EI, and ISTP. The Journal of Zhejiang A & F University has been included in the elite group of journals in Zhejiang Province with its impact factor exceeding 1.0. In addition to all the above, a series of research results, after being put into practice, have had tremendous economic and social effects.

ZAFU recruits students from 24 provinces, municipality and autonomous region. At present, ZAFU has 18,000 full-time students. ZAFU makes persistent and unswerving efforts to produce well- informed, highly-capable, well-cultivated and innovation-minded practical students. Graduates of ZAFU are well received for their diligence, devotion and capability. The first employment rate of undergraduate students is always more than 90% and in the forefront of Zhejiang universities. In 2008, Education Ministry formally evaluated ZAFU as outstanding in term of teaching.

ZAFU promotes international exchange and co-operation and has built up collaborative and academic relationships with 30 universities and academic institutes in more than 10 countries and regions, such as the USA and Canada. ZAFU has also built up sound ties with West Sydney University (Australia) and Alberta University (Canada) in joint education programs. Now 43 foreign experts together with 50 foreign language teachers are teaching and researching in ZAFU on a long-term basis.

At present, the uiversity is striding on its way to build an ecologic university with the development strategy of educating ecological philosophy and strengthen the university by innovation.