Recently, the 2023 list of the top 2% global scientists was released, featuring 29 Chinese geographers. Among them, four researchers from our team were recognized, placing us in the top 10. Center Director Liu Yansui ranked first (284th globally), Deputy Director Long Hualou ranked second (1748th globally), Associate Researcher Li Yuheng ranked fifth (19525th globally), and Researcher Li Yurui ranked tenth (42121st globally).
Established in 2005, the Center for Research on Agricultural Resources and Development (CRARD) has focused on international scientific frontiers and major national strategies for nearly 18 years. The center specializes in theoretical research in modern agriculture and rural geography, explores technical methodologies, and engages in practical geographic engineering. It emphasizes comprehensive and interdisciplinary geographic research, application transformation, and internationalization. The center has achieved systematic innovative results in various fields, including strategic structural adjustments in modern agriculture, new rural construction, the hollowing-out of rural areas and remediation of hollow villages, rural land system reform, targeted poverty alleviation and rural revitalization, rural spatial systems and land use transformation, and agricultural geographic engineering and human-environment systems science.
CRARD has established various types of geographic engineering observation research demonstration bases (stations) and coordinated observation and decision support systems in locations such as Yucheng, Shandong; Yulin, Shaanxi; Yan'an, Shaanxi; Yangxian, Shaanxi; and Fuping, Hebei. In 2016, the center initiated the establishment of the International Geographical Union's Agriculture Geography and Land Engineering (IGU-AGLE) Committee, and in 2020, it founded the Belt and Road Alliance for Poverty Reduction and Development (ANSO-APRD). In 2018, Researcher Liu Yansui was elected as an academician of the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World, and in 2023, Researcher Long Hualou was elected as a fellow of the British Academy.