Zhejiang Agriculture and Forestry University is a provincial-level key university in Zhejiang Province, that is jointly built by the Zhejiang Provincial People's Government and the National Forestry and Grassland Administration. The university was founded in 1958, and called Tianmu Forestry College. In 1966, it was renamed Zhejiang Forestry College, and renamed again Zhejiang Agriculture and Forestry University in 2010. Over the past 60 years, the university has developed into a multidisciplinary university, it offers eight discipline classes, with strengths in agriculture, forestry, and the biological environment, covering eight fields, and has established a complete talent training and degree authorization system for bachelors, masters, and doctors.

The university has 16 colleges (departments) and an independent college with 66 undergraduate majors. It also has first-level post-doctoral mobile station discipline of forestry, 5 doctoral degree authorized first-level disciplines, 1 programme for cultivating doctoral talents for national special needs, 16 master's degree authorized first-level disciplines, 8 professional master’s degree authorized categories. It has 5 national-level platforms, including key national laboratories, national engineering technology research centers, national and local joint engineering laboratories, national cultural communication bases, and national "111 programme" intelligence bases, and 38 provincial and ministerial-level innovation platforms.

Currently, there are more than 34,300 students, including more than 21,570 full-time undergraduates (including Jiyang College), more than 2,300 graduate students, more than 1,400 international students, and more than 9,100 college students from rural area and continuing education students.

The university insists on opening principle and actively carries out international exchanges and cooperation. It has signed cooperation agreements with more than 100 universities and scientific research institutions in 27 countries (regions) such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Finland, Japan, and Australia to conduct academic exchanges, cooperation and scientific research. It has established a Confucius Institute with Novi Sad University of Serbia, conducted joint training of talents with the University of British Columbia in Canada, the University of Helsinki in Finland, to extend its international influence.