Key Laboratory for Protected Agricultural Engineering in the Middle and Lower Reaches of Yangtze River, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (Key Laboratory hereafter) was approved by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (formerly the Ministry of Agriculture) in 2016, with the Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences as its supporting institution. In view of the development needs and problems of protected agricultural engineering in the middle and lower reaches of  Yangtze River, the Key Laboratory has carried out researches on protected cultivation engineering technology, aiming at promoting the transformation and upgrading of protected agriculture in the middle and lower reaches of Yangtze River and developing energy-saving and efficient protected agriculture. It focuses on researches on protected heat preservation technology, non-arable land protected cultivation and cyclic agricultural engineering, protected waterfowl cultivation technology and equipment, small protected machinery and equipment, as well as protected environment management and control in the ecological environment of the middle and lower reaches of Yangtze River, which integrates resource advantages and talent advantages of multiple disciplines and units in the region, so as to form protected agricultural production mode that is technology integrated, equipment serialized, model standardized and management modernized. In this way, it will provide technical and equipment support for the transformation and upgrading of agriculture in the middle and lower reaches of Yangtze River to high efficiency and green environmental protection

The purpose of the Key Laboratory is to promote the development of protected agricultural engineering in the middle and lower reaches of Yangtze River, enhance the innovation ability of protected agricultural engineering technology in the region and promote the modernized production level of protected agriculture in the region.

The Key Laboratory sets up three research directions: protected cultivation circular technology and equipment, coastal protected cultivation circular engineering technology and equipment, and protected waterfowl cultivation engineering technology and equipment.