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Subfield · Agricultural and Biological Sciences

Agronomy and Crop Science research

Agronomy and Crop Science is a subfield of Agricultural and Biological Sciences. Science Explorer counts 271k research works in it since 1950. 10.0% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

In short: science and technology of producing and using plants for food, fuel, fiber, and reclamation.

Research works
271k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
27k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.0%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Topics
11
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+12%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
19% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Agronomy and Crop Science

What is Agronomy and Crop Science research about, and what is growing?

By the world's output in 2021-25, its most used keywords are Sustainable Agriculture, Genetic Improvement, Milk Composition, Maize Yield, Nitrogen Uptake, Energy Balance. Gaining share since 2011-15: Agricultural Development, Russian Agriculture, Climate Change, Beef Cattle, Livestock Production. Losing share: Bioenergy Crops, Switchgrass, Energy Balance, African Swine Fever.

▲ gaining share of this field◆ holding its share▼ losing share

Size is the world's fractional works in 2021-25 in the topics tagged with each word; colour compares the word's share of this field with 2011-15. Each links to the topic it comes from most.

All 27 words, with their numbers
  1. Sustainable Agriculture22k▲ 1.31×4 topics
  2. Genetic Improvement19k◆ 1.10×3 topics
  3. Milk Composition12k▼ 0.77×2 topics
  4. Maize Yield11k◆ 1.13×1 topic
  5. Nitrogen Uptake11k◆ 1.13×1 topic
  6. Energy Balance11k▼ 0.67×2 topics
  7. Methane Production8,018▼ 0.76×1 topic
  8. Ruminant Nutrition8,018▼ 0.76×1 topic
  9. Agricultural Productivity7,736◆ 1.05×1 topic
  10. Intercropping7,736◆ 1.05×1 topic
  11. African Swine Fever7,689▼ 0.71×1 topic
  12. Foot-and-Mouth Disease7,689▼ 0.71×1 topic
  13. Climate Change7,433▲ 3.5×2 topics
  14. Reproductive Loss7,344▼ 0.72×1 topic
  15. Uterine Disease7,344▼ 0.72×1 topic
  16. Beef Cattle6,433▲ 3.2×1 topic
  17. Livestock Production6,433▲ 3.2×1 topic
  18. Crop Adaptation4,420▲ 3.0×1 topic
  19. Forage Production4,420▲ 3.0×1 topic
  20. Bovine Mastitis3,678▼ 0.80×1 topic
  21. Milk Quality3,678▼ 0.80×1 topic
  22. Bioenergy Crops3,463▼ 0.58×1 topic
  23. Switchgrass3,463▼ 0.58×1 topic
  24. Agricultural Development3,013▲ 4.7×1 topic
  25. Russian Agriculture3,013▲ 4.7×1 topic
  26. Livestock Farming2,541▲ 1.27×1 topic
  27. Rural Development2,541▲ 1.27×1 topic

Which countries lead Agronomy and Crop Science research?

On research quality in 2022-now, China, the United States and Germany rank highest in Agronomy and Crop Science. By volume, China and India publish the most (6.7k and 6.7k works in 2022-now).

By research quality, 2022-now

  1. 1 China #2 all time 2.00× citation excellence · 1.11× journals · 100% breadth 23.1% top 10% · 5.9k works
  2. 2 United States #1 all time 1.04× citation excellence · 1.53× journals · 100% breadth 11.4% top 10% · 5.4k works
  3. 3 Germany #5 all time 1.55× citation excellence · 1.40× journals · 100% breadth 14.6% top 10% · 722 works
  4. 4 United Kingdom #3 all time 1.26× citation excellence · 1.45× journals · 100% breadth 13.2% top 10% · 812 works
  5. 5 Australia #4 all time 1.51× citation excellence · 1.20× journals · 100% breadth 16.6% top 10% · 743 works
  6. 6 France #6 all time 1.09× citation excellence · 1.26× journals · 100% breadth 9.7% top 10% · 844 works
  7. 7 Netherlands #8 all time 1.77× citation excellence · 1.45× journals · 100% breadth 19.6% top 10% · 263 works
  8. 8 Switzerland #10 all time 1.50× citation excellence · 1.87× journals · 100% breadth 16.7% top 10% · 222 works
  9. 9 Canada #7 all time 1.12× citation excellence · 1.19× journals · 100% breadth 12.7% top 10% · 753 works
  10. 10 Spain #9 all time 1.42× citation excellence · 0.99× journals · 100% breadth 15.3% top 10% · 583 works

The track on each row is that row's top-10% rate. The ranking itself is the quality score, which compares the rate with what each place's own topics predict, adds its share of papers in the Nature Index journals, and counts output and breadth too.

Of 40 countries ranked in Agronomy and Crop Science. Ranked on the quality score for 2022-now; the bracket is the all-time rank.

All countries ranked in Agronomy and Crop Science

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 6.7k works
  2. 2 India 6.7k works
  3. 3 United States 6k works
  4. 4 Indonesia 5.6k works
  5. 5 Russia 4.1k works
  6. 6 Brazil 2.6k works
  7. 7 Türkiye 1.2k works
  8. 8 Egypt 1.1k works
  9. 9 France 933 works
  10. 10 Italy 908 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China: 18.7%India: 18.6%United States: 16.8%Indonesia: 15.7%6 others listed: 30.2%19%largest
China6,713 · 18.7%India6,673 · 18.6%United States6,029 · 16.8%Indonesia5,622 · 15.7%6 others listed11k · 30.2%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Agronomy and Crop Science research?

Chinese Academy of Sciences (China) ranks first in Agronomy and Crop Science on research quality in 2022-now, followed by Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and China Agricultural University.

By research quality, 2022-now

  1. 1 Chinese Academy of Sciences China · Beijing · #2 all time 29.6% top 10% · 299 works
  2. 2 Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences China · Beijing · #5 all time 24.8% top 10% · 732 works
  3. 3 China Agricultural University China · Beijing · #3 all time 28.5% top 10% · 257 works
  4. 4 Cornell University United States · Ithaca · #1 all time 17.5% top 10% · 134 works
  5. 5 Northwest A&F University China · Yangling · #10 all time 32.1% top 10% · 166 works
  6. 6 Wageningen University & Research Netherlands · Wageningen · #4 all time 22.2% top 10% · 123 works
  7. 7 University of Wisconsin–Madison United States · Madison · #6 all time 13.0% top 10% · 137 works
  8. 8 Lanzhou University China · Lanzhou · #29 all time 30.9% top 10% · 79 works
  9. 9 Nanjing Agricultural University China · Nanjing · #16 all time 25.7% top 10% · 140 works
  10. 10 University of Florida United States · Gainesville · #14 all time 14.5% top 10% · 184 works

The track on each row is that row's top-10% rate. The ranking itself is the quality score, which compares the rate with what each place's own topics predict, adds its share of papers in the Nature Index journals, and counts output and breadth too.

Of 130 institutions above the floor of 40 fractional works in Agronomy and Crop Science.

Top 100 Agronomy and Crop Science institutions

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Indian Council of Agricultural ResearchIndia 1.2k works
  2. 2 Chinese Academy of Agricultural SciencesChina 843 works
  3. 3 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 753 works
  4. 4 United States Department of AgricultureUnited States 381 works
  5. 5 Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'EnvironnementFrance 371 works
  6. 6 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 328 works
  7. 7 Agricultural Research CenterEgypt 311 works
  8. 8 Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural ResearchEthiopia 287 works
  9. 9 China Agricultural UniversityChina 284 works
  10. 10 IPB UniversityIndonesia 276 works

Who are the leading researchers in Agronomy and Crop Science?

Counting only their work in Agronomy and Crop Science, Robert G. Webster, Kadambot H. M. Siddique and Fusuo S. Zhang have the most papers in the world top 10% for their subfield and year beyond the 10% expected.

  1. 1 Robert G. Webster United States · #10,434 worldwide overall 58.9 of 113 papers here in the top 10%
  2. 2 Kadambot H. M. Siddique Australia · #3,244 worldwide overall 56.4 of 123 papers here in the top 10%
  3. 3 Fusuo S. Zhang China · #2,111 worldwide overall 49.5 of 99 papers here in the top 10%
  4. 4 Richard J. Webby United States · #22,308 worldwide overall 45.7 of 101 papers here in the top 10%
  5. 5 WILLIAM W. THATCHER United States · #83,341 worldwide overall 59.4 of 154 papers here in the top 10%
  6. 6 Gustavo Ariel Slafer Spain · #40,312 worldwide overall 52.3 of 101 papers here in the top 10%
  7. 7 Jan Dijkstra Netherlands · #199,198 worldwide overall 54.1 of 159 papers here in the top 10%
  8. 8 Alexander Nikolov Hristov United States · #33,001 worldwide overall 40.8 of 92 papers here in the top 10%
  9. 9 Matthew Paul Reynolds Mexico · #3,407 worldwide overall 39.8 of 84 papers here in the top 10%
  10. 10 Fuller W. Bazer United States · #157,530 worldwide overall 55.0 of 146 papers here in the top 10%

Ranked on their work in Agronomy and Crop Science alone: how many more of their papers here reached the world top 10% for their subfield and year than the 10% expected, among 646,046 ranked researchers with a paper here. Each paper counts once, so many strong papers outrank one famous one, and a long record of ordinary papers does not climb. Identities come from OpenAlex author disambiguation, which occasionally merges or splits people.

Top 100 Agronomy and Crop Science researchers

What are the most cited papers in Agronomy and Crop Science?

The most cited paper in Agronomy and Crop Science is "Methods for Dietary Fiber, Neutral Detergent Fiber, and Nonstarch Polysaccharides in Relation to Animal Nutrition" (Peter J. Van Soest, James B. Robertson, B.A. Lewis, 1991), with 28,661 citations. Next come "Global trends in emerging infectious diseases" (8,468) and "Soil Carbon Sequestration Impacts on Global Climate Change and Food Security" (8,396).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Methods for Dietary Fiber, Neutral Detergent Fiber, and Nonstarch Polysaccharides in Relation to Animal Nutrition Peter J. Van Soest, James B. Robertson, B.A. Lewis · Journal of Dairy Science Open access Oct 1991 28,661
2 Global trends in emerging infectious diseases Kate E. Jones, Nikkita Patel, Marc A. Levy et al. · Nature Open access Feb 2008 8,468
3 Soil Carbon Sequestration Impacts on Global Climate Change and Food Security Rattan Lal · Science 10 Jun 2004 8,396
4 Agricultural sustainability and intensive production practices David Tilman, Kenneth G. Cassman, Pamela A. Matson et al. · Nature Aug 2002 7,955
5 Isolation of a T-Lymphotropic Retrovirus from a Patient at Risk for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) Françoise Barré‐Sinoussi, Jean‐Claude Chermann, FA Rey et al. · Science 20 May 1983 6,979
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Agronomy and Crop Science research done?

The largest centres of Agronomy and Crop Science research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Moscow (Russia), Giza (Egypt) and Jakarta (Indonesia). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Lobnya, Pravdinskiy and Gia Lộc.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 1.5k works
  2. 2 MoscowRussia 951 works
  3. 3 GizaEgypt 502 works
  4. 4 JakartaIndonesia 458 works
  5. 5 São PauloBrazil 420 works
  6. 6 New DelhiIndia 392 works
  7. 7 Addis AbabaEthiopia 370 works
  8. 8 BogorIndonesia 331 works
  9. 9 MalangIndonesia 325 works
  10. 10 LanzhouChina 313 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. LobnyaRU · 67.2 works119×
  2. PravdinskiyRU · 29.9 works72×
  3. Gia LộcVN · 53.7 works64×
  4. Clay CenterUS · 23.4 works62×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Agronomy and Crop Science than the world average.

See Agronomy and Crop Science on the map

Agronomy and Crop Science research by country

The best places for Agronomy and Crop Science research inside each country, with that country's researchers and world standing.

Where is the best place to study Agronomy and Crop Science?

Among universities, judged by research, China Agricultural University, Cornell University and Wageningen University & Research score highest, combining standing in the field's ranking, citation excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 22.82%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Northwest A&F Univer…China Agricultural U…Wageningen Universit…Cornell University
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Standingthis field's institution ranking, three quarters all time and a quarter 2022-now
50%
Citation excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
20%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
5%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
15%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
5%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
5%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreRank in field (all time)Top 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1China Agricultural UniversityChina 85.5#3 (#3)27.3%10.7×284 +32.2%
2Cornell UniversityUnited States 83.6#4 (#1)16.8%2.4×152 +5.5%
3Wageningen University & ResearchNetherlands 78.0#6 (#4)21.9%7.9×137 +3.2%
4Northwest A&F UniversityChina 76.2#5 (#10)30.3%10.1×187 +53.2%
5University of Wisconsin–MadisonUnited States 68.0#7 (#6)12.9%3.5×153 +8.9%
6Nanjing Agricultural UniversityChina 67.8#9 (#16)24.1%8.7×160 +33.4%
7University of Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 62.7- (#8)35.4%0.7×52 +46.3%
8Lanzhou UniversityChina 62.3#8 (#29)29.3%2.6×87 +96.6%
9University of California, DavisUnited States 60.8#14 (#13)16.1%3.0×116 +14.3%
10University of FloridaUnited States 59.2#10 (#14)14.1%3.9×198 -15.1%

Universities only. The score blends standing (50%), citation excellence (20%), size (15%), specialisation (5%), growth (5%), international reach (5%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise. Standing is the score in this field's institution ranking, three quarters over all time and a quarter 2022-now; excellence averages the two windows too. Four years alone undercount fields such as AI, where many conference and arXiv papers from 2022 on carry no affiliation in the data.

Every institution in Agronomy and Crop Science, country by country

Is Agronomy and Crop Science research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 12% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2024. The fastest-growing topics are Livestock Farming and Management, Crop Yield and Soil Fertility and Milk Quality and Mastitis in Dairy Cows.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Agronomy and Crop Science as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.25% in 2024.

still counting0.20%0.40%0.60%Agronomy and Crop Science0.22% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Agronomy and Crop Science over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Agronomy and Crop Science10.4% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

  1. Livestock Farming and Management+36%
  2. Crop Yield and Soil Fertility+31%
  3. Milk Quality and Mastitis in Dairy Cows+18%
  4. Agronomic Practices and Intercropping Systems+17%
  5. Livestock Management and Performance Improvement+12%
  6. Animal Disease Management and Epidemiology+10%
  7. Agricultural Productivity and Crop Improvement-2%
  8. Agricultural Development and Policies-4%
← shrinkingno changegrowing →

Growth in output from 2018-21 to 2022-25. Every topic is a page of its own.

What does Agronomy and Crop Science include?

Reproductive Physiology in Livestock: 48k fractional worksRuminant Nutrition and Digestive Physiology: 45k fractional worksCrop Yield and Soil Fertility: 39k fractional worksAnimal Disease Management and Epidemiology: 37k fractional worksAgronomic Practices and Intercropping Systems: 31k fractional worksMilk Quality and Mastitis in Dairy Cows: 18k fractional worksBioenergy crop productio…17kBioenergy crop production and management: 17k fractional worksLivestock Farming and Management: 13k fractional worksAgricultural Productivity and Crop Improvement: 9,849 fractional worksLivestock Management and Performance Improvement: 8,163 fractional worksAgricultural Development and Policies: 5,755 fractional works

Area is fractional works in that topic. Every name below is a page of its own.

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Who leads Agronomy and Crop Science, on Science Explorer

A card with the countries and institutions that lead Agronomy and Crop Science, for a post or a slide.

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