Yezin Agricultural University (YAU)is the principal agricultural agency of higher education in Myanmar, and most agricultural scientists at the government agencies graduated from this university.

It is located about 11 miles north of Pyinmana in the new capital Nay Pyi Taw, and has its own University farm which has access to irrigation. The YAU is a well-established university with its glorious past since its establishment in 1924 in Mandalay. On 22nd of December in 1924, Governor Sir Spencer Harcourt Butler inaugurated the Burma Agricultural College and Research Institute which offered 3 year Agricultural Diploma program. Before being set as a separate institute under Ministry of Education as Institute of Agriculture in 1964, it was just a faculty under Rangoon and Mandalay University alternately. In 1973 the campus was moved from Mandalay to the present location due to geolocation and suitability of crop production 5 years after which Master Degree course was started.

In 1993, the management was transferred from Ministry of Education to Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation for better facilities. It was renamed as Yezin Agricultural University in 1998. 2 years after its Diamond Jubilee celebration in 1999, the university opened Ph. D course as its highest curriculum.

The goal of the university is to educate students to enable them to attain high standard in
agricultural sciences, and generate well qualified agriculturists for the country. The university has 13 departments of basic and applied agricultural sciences, and offers a four year Bachelor of Agricultural Science (BAgrSc) degree program, a three-year Master of Agricultural Science (MAgrSc) degree program, and a doctorate (PhD) program. The faculty is well qualified and experienced. Some of the teaching staff has received postgraduate training overseas.

The three missions of the university are to provide education and develop human resources for increased production through green growth, to provide career and business opportunities for the graduates who are well qualified and to contribute the nation through research and education.

Since its foundations, the university has already produced more than 9,000 bachelor degree holders together with numbers of postgraduate degrees up to 2012. YAU has about 700 staff and admits every year 300 new students.

The university comprises 13 major academic departments and four supporting academic
departments, in which the main departments are: Department of Agronomy, Department of Agricultural Botany, Department of Agricultural Chemistry, Department of Agricultural Economics, Department of Horticulture, Department of Entomology and Zoology, Department of Plant Pathology, Department of Animal Science, Department of Agricultural Engineering, Department of Myanmar, Department of English, Department of Physics and Department of Mathematic.

In 2006, the university curriculum was modified and improved and with it, 7 new campuses around the country were established for final year students’ research and specialization studies. Therefore, nowadays, YAU has 7 outreached campuses nationwide:

• Aungban campus in Shan state for maize and other cereal crops;
• Lungyaw campus in Mandalay for, cotton and other fibre crops;
• Pharauk campus for perennial crops;
• Hlegu campus for Plant Protection and horticultural crops;
• Hmawbi campus for rice crop;
• Nyaungpinthar campus for sugar crops;
• Magwe campus for oilseed crops;
• The Main campus in Yezin for agribusiness management, soil and water management and biotechnology.