The Chinese Agricultural Civilization Museum is the first thematic museum by a higher education institution in China to systematically collect, study and exhibit Chinese agricultural history and culture. In May 2003, the formal planning for the construction of the Chinese Agricultural Civilization Museum began, and the Museum was formally opened on October 20, 2004. The museum is situated at No. 1 Nongbo Road in Nanjing Agricultural University. Its current site is an independent building with strong ethnic characteristics that was designed by the master architect, Yang Tingbao, and completed in 1953. It has a building area of over 2,000 square meters and exhibition area of 1,500 square meters.
The museum collected artifacts from various sources. Its collection includes real objects of ancient farming tools made of stone, bronze, and metal from previous dynasties amounting to over 3,000 pieces, ancient crop and animal specimen, agricultural soil samples from China and overseas, and artifacts reflecting ancient agrarian life and culture. Meanwhile, the collection contains unique objects such as 346 original manuscripts of ancient agricultural books that amount to over 3,000 copies, among which the 15 types of classic books such as the Ming Dynasty block-printed edition of the Essential Techniques for the Welfare of the People and A Complete Treatise on Agriculture and Administration (Nong Zhen Quan Shu) were listed among the “Catalogue of National Rare Books” by the State Council’s ancient book compilation group.
The museum systematically displays the history and the marvelous achievements of Chinese agriculture, and plays an important role in the collection and preservation of agricultural heritage, public education, dissemination of scientific and cultural knowledge, as well as the promotion of ethnic and traditional culture, which has had the positive and broad social influence at home and abroad and consistently won favorable comments from people of all sectors.
Since its opening, it has been given the honorary name of “Active Contributor to the Construction of A New Nanjing”, “Nanjing Patriotism Education Base”, “Popular Science Education Base in Jiangsu Province”, and “Jiangsu Patriotism Education Base”. In 2010, it was ranked as a national-level “National Popular Science Education Base”. The Museum is currently listed as the Nanjing Branch of the China Agricultural Museum and the NAU Branch of Nanjing Museum.