Overview
Agronomy and plant breeding department started its activity in 1980 to improve farming systems and agricultural products by educating and training students to prepare them for careers in farms, industry, government and academia. Its mission is to expand and transfer knowledge of agronomy and plant breeding to continuously improve factors such as the safety, quality, harvest index, and economic value of crops. Full time faculty members are mainly involved in teaching and investigating different fields of agronomy science with emphasize on new advances in this realm.
The department provides a range of research laboratories, as well as specialized devices for analyzing crops and agronomic products supporting educational programs at both undergraduate and graduate levels. About 20 faculty and staff members supports a body of 200 students. At undergraduate level, department offers a general program in agronomy and plant breeding. The graduate program is specialized into agronomy and plant breeding with masters and PhD curriculum offered in both fields. The main goals of graduate curriculum are to train students for professional careers enabling them to manage research programs in the area of crop production, crop physiology and classical and molecular breeding. Research is mainly focused on cereals, forage crops, oilseeds and other industrial and medicinal plants to improve yield and quality of production. Sustainability and environmental issues are highly considered in this process.
 
Research Fields

1. Germplasm evaluation and enhancement of many cultivated and wild crop species (such as wheat, safflower, linseed, sesame, canola ….) for resistance to abiotic stresses employing traditional and molecular techniques.
2. Improvement of cultural practices for crop most important to Iran.
3. Assessment of climate change and plant growth, development and yield.

The Iranian Society of Plant Physiology runs under supervision of this department.

Academic Programs

Undergraduate Programs
To obtain a B.Sc. degree in Agronomy and Plant Breeding undergraduate students must take a total of 135 credits of which 20 credits are general, 32 credits basic, 76 credits core, and 11 credits are elective courses. You can download the undergraduate curriculum from here and the course description from here.

Graduate Programs

• M.Sc. Programs: To obtain M.Sc. degree in Plant Breeding graduate students must take a total of 32 credits of which 19 credits are compulsory courses, 6 credits are elective, 1 credit is seminar and 6 credits are thesis. You can download the graduate curriculum from here and the course description from here.