The Farmland Irrigation Research Institute (FIRI) was funded in Beijing in 1959 and moved to Xinxiang in Henan Province in 1963. FIRI has 83 academic staff and 65 supporting and administrative staff. And 24 of them have obtained doctoral degree and 52 master degree. The FIRI is committed to applied and basic research in developing new technologies for farmland irrigation and drainage. The eight disciplinary areas within the institute are the crop water requirement and regulation, insufficient irrigation and new technology, the unconventional use of water resources, the optimal allocation and regulation of agricultural water resources, efficient water-saving irrigation technology and equipment, construction and reformation of water-saving irrigation districts, farmland drainage technology and waterlogged recovery.

The research laboratories and facilities at FIRI include an experimental field station for crop-water interaction research, a hydraulic laboratory to test sprinkler and microirrigation systems, a lysimeter station, and two comprehensive experimental stations in Shangqiu and Xinxiang. Furthermore, FIRI hosts the National Scientific Observation Station of Farmland Ecosystem of MOST in Shangqiu and the Key Laboratory of MOA for Crop Water Requirement and Regulation.