The school's predecessor was the National Northwest Agricultural and Forestry College founded by 1934. 1September, 1999, with the approval of the State Council, seven scientific and educational institutions, including the former Northwest Agricultural University, Northwest Forestry College, Water Conservancy Research Institute of Ministry of Water Resources of China Academy of Sciences, Northwest Water Conservancy Research Institute of Ministry of Water Resources, Shaanxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shaanxi Academy of Forestry and Northwest Botany Research Institute of China Academy of Sciences, merged to form Northwest A&F University.
Since its founding more than 80 years ago, generations of teachers and students have been adhering to the school philosophy of "learning from the country, understanding the people's livelihood and attaching importance to science" and the school motto of "being loyal and brave", caring about the country and the people, feeling poor and helping the poor, inheriting the ambition of Hou Ji, an ancient agricultural god, carrying out the contemporary practice of "teaching the people and cultivating the farmers", adhering to the road of running schools closely combined with Industry-University-Research, and making outstanding contributions to promoting China's agricultural modernization and the development of agricultural science and education.