Chapingo is a small town located on the outskirts of the city of

Texcoco, State of Mexico Texcoco de Mora (, Otomi: ) is a city located in the State of Mexico, 25 km northeast of Mexico City. Texcoco de Mora is the municipal seat of the municipality of Texcoco. In the pre-Hispanic era, this was a major Aztec city on the sho ...

, in central

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. It is located at , about east-northeast of

Mexico City International Airport Mexico City International Airport (); officially ''Aeropuerto Internacional Benito Juárez'' (Benito Juárez International Airport) is the primary international airport serving Greater Mexico City. It is the List of the busiest airports in Me ...

. Chapingo is most notable as the location of

Chapingo Autonomous University Universidad Autónoma Chapingo (Chapingo Autonomous University) is an agricultural college located in Texcoco, Mexico State in Mexico. The university is a federally funded public institution of higher education. It offers technical and full b ...

''(Universidad Autónoma Chapingo).'' The UACh, as it is known, is the country's most prestigious center for agricultural studies. It was founded as the National School of Agriculture in

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

in 1854 and has been located on its current Chapingo campus since 1923. It is very close, about from both the Colegio de Posgraduados (CP) postgraduate study centre and the

International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (known – even in English – by its Spanish acronym CIMMYT for ''Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo'') is a non-profit research-for-development organization that develops ...

(CIMMYT). Chapingo combines with these other leading centers to form an unofficial "national consortium for agricultural development". In the surrounding area is located also a new urban development now close to the municipal seat, Texcoco, cradle of the prehispanic Acolhuan culture, whose greatest figure was King Nezahualcoyotl. This urban settlement comprises Chapingo, Huexotla, Unidad

ISSSTE The Institute for Social Security and Services for State Workers or Civil Service Social Security and Services Institute (, ISSSTE) is a federal agency in Mexico that administers part of Mexico's health care and social security systems for fe ...

(residential area for staff of UACH) as well as Salitreria and Texcoco (pop. 150,000). University of Chapingo holds students from all states of Mexico, through an admission process carried out every year. This process not only gives admission but awards full scholarships to all students selected. Students are divided into three categories, depending on their socioeconomical status, however, no fees are charged to any national student. On the other hand, it holds rooms and facilities to accommodate students in campus. The Autonomous university was a locus of work of the Rockefeller Foundation's initial support for beginnings of the Green Revolution with

Norman Borlaug Norman Ernest Borlaug (; March 25, 1914September 12, 2009) was an American agronomist who led initiatives worldwide that contributed to the extensive increases in agricultural production termed the Green Revolution. Borlaug was awarded multiple ...

, who did a series of research projects on wheat varieties in the mid-1940s. UAC remains an important center for research.

References

Populated places in the State of Mexico {{México-geo-stub