Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences (CATAS) is the national institution engaged in tropical agricultural research and development as well as graduate student education. As a national research academy, CATAS is administrated by the Ministry of Agriculture, P. R. China.

    The precursor of CATAS was South China Special Forestry Research Institute established in Guangzhou in 1954, which was relocated to Hainan Province four years later. In 1965 it was renamed as South China Academy of Tropical Crops, and renamed again as Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences in 1994 to broaden its research areas and mandates.

    CATAS has three campuses, namely Haikou Campus, Danzhou Campus and Zhanjiang Campus and 14 institutes and one experimental farm with land area of more than 4,000 ha for trials and experiments. CATAS holds 2 postdoctoral stations for recruiting and training those young scientists who newly obtains a doctorate. CATAS has a staff of over 4,600 among which 3,300 are research scientists, including nearly 500 senior scientists.

    CATAS is engaged in researches on rubber tree, tropical fruits, tropical bio-fuel crops, tropical vegetables, tropical forage, tropical textile fiber crops, tropical arboreal oil crops, tropical spice and beverage crops, tropical medicinal crops, agricultural machinery, environment and plant protection, biotechnology, genetic resource conservation and development for tropical agriculture, as well as agro-product quality and safety standards formulation and monitoring and test technology for tropical agriculture.

     CATAS has good facilities for tropical agriculture research. In 2006 the State Key Research Centre for Tropical Crops Engineering Technology was established at CATAS. It has one ministerial and provincial joint effort state key laboratory incubation base, one state level breeding center, seven ministerial level test centers, five Hainan provincial key laboratories, and four Hainan provincial engineering & technology research centers. These centres or laboratories are either part of a research institute, or shared by a number of research institute.

     CATAS is active in international cooperation and collaboration activities and has set up 12 international cooperation platforms to support such activities, such as FAO Reference Center for Tropical Agriculture Research and Training, CATAS-CIAT Collaboration and Cooperation Office, China-The Republic of Congo Agricultural Technology Demonstration Center, International Research Center for Advanced Tropical Agricultural Materials established by CATAS and Deakin University of Australia, International Joint Laboratory for Research and Development of Tropical Medicinal Plants, CATAS-University of Hawai’i Cooperative Research Center for Tropical Plant Protection, International S & T Cooperation Base for Tropical Agriculture approved by Ministry of Science and Technology of the P. R. China, National Intelligence Introduction and Extension Base for Tropical Forage approved by State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs of China, Hainan-ASEAN Tropical Crops S&T Cooperation Base approved by Department of S & T of Hainan Province, etc. CATAS has an extensive collaborative relationship with tropical and subtropical agricultural research institutions from more than 30 countries and regions. It has offered over 70 international training courses to over 2000 participants from more than 100 developing countries spread in Asia, Africa, South Pacific Islands and Latin America .