Abstract: This paper summarized the scientific contributions and achievements, social impacts of Center for Agricultural Resources Research, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. For the last 40 years, the center has been seeking the way for agricultural modernization in China. The ecological agriculture model was developed and demonstrated in the 1980s. The resource-saving agriculture model focused on water saving was developed and disseminated in the 1990s. The intelligent agriculture and green agriculture model was developed and demonstrated in the early 2000s. Overall, the theories of agro-ecosystem managements for water-saving irrigation, nitrogen cycling, mitigation of non-point sources pollution, forest ecological engineer, saline soil reclamation, nutrients flow of food chain and molecular breeding have been developed during the last 40 years. Several large-scale agricultural demonstration projects, as "Bohai Granary" building project, by combination of government, farmers, extension technicians and researchers were organized and conducted, which greatly promoted the regional agricultural development.