Northwest A&F University is located in Yangling, Shaanxi, the birthplace of agricultural civilization in China and the national agricultural high-tech industrial demonstration zone. It is a key construction university directly under the Ministry of Education and the original "985 Project" and "2 1 1 Project". It was selected as the first batch of national "world-class universities and first-class disciplines" and the second batch of national "double-class" construction universities in 2022.

The school was formerly the National Northwest Agricultural and Forestry College, founded in 1934. 1In September, 1999, with the approval of the State Council, seven scientific and educational institutions, including the former Northwest Agricultural University, Northwest Forestry College, Institute of Soil and Water Conservation of the Ministry of Water Resources of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Northwest Water Conservancy Institute of the Ministry of Water Resources, Shaanxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shaanxi Academy of Forestry and Northwest Botany Institute of Shaanxi Academy of Sciences of China, were merged to form Northwest A&F University.