Basic information
Chai Yan, male, was born in January 1951 in Fugu, Shaanxi province, Professor and Supervisor of master students in College of Agronomy, NWAFU.
Prof. Chai graduated from Northwest Agricultural College in 1974, and then worked in the Yulin Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Shaanxi Province until 1998; afterwards worked in the Institute of Loess Plateau Control of Shaanxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences from 1998 to 2000; then worked in College of Agronomy, Northwest A&F University.
Prof. Chai has been awarded a series of honors due to his remarkable contributions to the minor grain crop industry of China, including Experts of special government allowances; experts with outstanding contributions in Shaanxi Province; head of minor cereals experts guidance committee of Ministry of Agriculture; Deputy Director of National minor cereals varieties valuation Committee; Deputy Director of Professional Committee of millet crops of Chinese Crop Science Society; Deputy Director of Professional Committee of buckwheat and oats of Chinese Crop Science Society; member of China Food Industry Association; President of the10th international buckwheat symposium; Professional position of the state system of edible legumes cultivated soil, fertilizer and industrial technology.

Research field and direction
Prof Chai Yan works in the fields of Germplasm reservation, genetics and breeding, cultivation and industrial development of Minor cereals.
Prof. Chai delivers a number of courses to the undergraduates like ‘Crop cultivation’, ‘Discipline instruction’, ‘Basic methods for scientific study’ etc. And he also teaches the master postgraduates curriculums such as ‘Progress of crop science’ and ‘Secured production of plants’.
Currently, Prof. Chai has already cultivated 16 master postgraduates.

Academic Achievements
Prof. Chai has engaged in the breeding, cultivation, development and utilization research of millet, buckwheat, edible beans and teaching. In recent 30 years, he has completed the germplasm collection, identification, cataloging of more than 2,000 accessions of Millet and buckwheat germplasm from Shaanxi Province and have these resources reserved in the national germplasm bank (1979-1992); he has formulated the quality standard of the buckwheat, millet, edible beans and other minor cereals (1990-1995); he has bred new varieties of common buckwheat Yuqiao2, tartay buckwheat Yuqiao6-21 (1988-1996); tartay buckwheat Xinong9920, Xinong9909 (1999-2005), broomcorn millet Yumi1 (glutinous), Yumi2 (non-glutinous),Yumi3 (non-glutinous) (1982-1998); kidney bean dark red kidney beans, peas Westpea1, mung bean Westgreen1 (2003 -2006), alfalfa Xinong9707 and other varieties; he has introduced and promoted the peony buckwheat, Yimi2, cowpea1, and green-1; he has promoted the Cultivation Techniques in Buckwheat, Millet production; He has also fulfilled the investigation of potato diseases in northern and western areas of China respectively for the sake of addressing the dominant problems which may affect the potato production. During this process, Prof. Chai has proposed a variety of solutions that are able to effectively eliminate the threats on potato production.

Prof. Chai has been in charge of the national trials of China minor cereals (1998 - present), participated in the project of efficient use of integrated technology and industrialization demonstration of buckwheat, beans of Ministry of Science and Technology (2006BAD02B06, 2006BAD02B08), the national Industrial Technology Systems of edible beans (2009-2013), Industry Plan of Ministry of Agriculture (200903007, 200903008), minor cereals production without tillage and high yield cultivation techniques, 863 plan project of Ministry of Science and technology (2006AA100201), an industrial system of minor cereals of Shaanxi Province (2009 -) and so on. Prof Chai also served as the Editor of the books of "Chinese minor cereals”, "Minor cereals Industry Development Report of China”, "Chinese varieties of minor cereals”, "Guide to Minor cereals Industry Development in China”, "Broomcorn millet”, "the proceeding of the 10th International Symposium on buckwheat”, "Chinese characteristics Crop Industry Development”, "Millet paper album” and "the source directory of buckwheat in Shaanxi Province”. And he served as associate Editor of books of "Chinese buckwheat”, "crop cultivation” (north). Meanwhile, He has supervised the edition of books of "Scientific Research of the Chinese buckwheat”, "Chinese Buckwheat Resource Directory”, "Chinese glutinous millet”, "glutinous millet Breeds in China”, "S treatises of Chinese glutinous millet”, "Chinese Millet Germplasm Resources Directory” (volume 1, 2, 3), "Ningxia minor cereals”, "Yulin minor cereals” and other monographs. More than 80 papers published by Prof Chai Yan and as co-authors. To promote the information exchange, the website of "Chinese minor grain crops” was established and maintained by Prof Chai as well.

Prof. Chai has obtained 10 Awards of Scientific and Technological Progress:
High-yield demonstration technology of minor cereals was awarded the second prize of promotion of agricultural technology award of Shaanxi Province in 2009;
Demonstration and promotion of minor cereals was awarded the Science and Technology Progress Award of Shaanxi Province in1998;
Virus-free potato seed technology was awarded the farming fishery Harvest Awards Prize in 2002;
Construction of 0.5 million mu virus-free potato seed field was awarded the second prize of promotion of agricultural technology of Shaanxi Province in 2004;
Utilization of Chinese glutinous millet resource received Science and Technology Progress award of Shanxi province in 1995;
Cultivation Techniques of Buckwheat gained Science and Technology Progress Award of Shaanxi Province in 1992;
Breeding and utilization of Yumi 1 gained Science and Technology Progress Award by Shaanxi Province in 1997;
Millet Germplasm Resources catalog received the and Technology Progress Award of Ministry of Agriculture in 1993;
 Excellent use of Chinese millet resources gained Science and Technology Progress Award of Shanxi province in 1998;
Breeding and utilization of GS Neimi 5 acquired the Technology Progress Award of Inner Mongolia in 1995.
Moreover, 6 Awards were granted from the Department of Agriculture of Shaanxi Province and Yulin city for Prof. Chai’s works. Prof Chai also won the Zhenhua Science and Technology Award set by the Office of Alleviation Poverty of State Science and Technology Committee, the titles of excellent scientific and technological workers of Yulin city, excellent individual of Alleviation Poverty in Shaanxi province, and excellent individual of National promotion of advanced agricultural technology.
 
Prof. Chai has visited Japan, Slovenia, Ukraine, Russia, Czech Republic, Canada, the United States, Australia and other countries to promote the academic exchanges and communications.
Contact
Chai Yan
College of Agriculture, Northwest A and F University
Yangling, Shaanxi, China 712100
Tel: 029-87082889
E-mail: chai.yan@163.com