The Institute of Subtropical Agriculture (ISA) was founded in 1978 in Taoyuan County, Hunan Province and is now located in the provincial capital of Changsha.

ISA primarily conducts research on agricultural sustainable development, the processes of agroecosystems and their adaptive management, integrated systems of livestock farming and crop production, watershed environmental health control, and agricultural environmental microbiology.

ISA’s research facilities include the Center for Regional Agroecology, the Center for Animal Nutrition and the Environment, and the Center for Molecular Ecological Mechanisms and Breeding for Stress Tolerance in Crop Plants. ISA is also home to the CAS Key Laboratory of Agroecological Processes in Subtropical Regions. It also has four field observation and research stations in various locations in subtropical China: the Taoyuan Observation and Research Station for Agroecology; the Huanjiang Observation and Research Station for Karst Ecosystems; the Dongting Lake Observation and Research Station for Wetland Ecosystems; and the Changsha Observation and Research Station for the Agroenvironment.