institute of dry land farming of hebei academy of agriculture and forestry sciences, also called hengshui academy of agriculture sciences, which is located at taocheng district of hengshui city, was founded in 1955. there is more than 100 staff including 15 professors and 22 associate professors. based on the situation of serious water shortage in northern china, focusing on water and fertilizer use efficiency improvement, many new cultivars with both high yield potential and drought tolerance, dry farming & water saving technology, crop pest and disease bio-control technology, have been developed, demonstrated and extended.
the institute has 10 research divisions: wheat breeding department, corn breeding department, cotton breeding department, millet breeding department, pasture grass breeding and cultivation department，genetic resources innovation department，drought-resistant evaluation department, water saving technology research department, bio-control of pest and disease department, and bio-tech department；3 management divisions: management office, scientific research management department and accounting department. it also runs water saving agriculture research station and hainan station.
10 sci-technological platforms on dry farming & water saving agriculture research were established which have more than 800 instrument/equipments worth about 2,000,000 rmb. it has become an ideal experimental base for scientists from both home and abroad to do cooperative research. now more than 40 programs like national “836” projects, “973” projects, the national science & technology pillar programs, national key transgenic project, and the projects from province and ministries are going on. the annual budget for scientific research was over 12,000,000 rmb. the research capability is getting daily stronger.