The major Plant Protection  is an advantageous specialty of Agronomy in Yunnan Agricultural University. It originated in 1938 from the Plant Protection Teaching and Research Group of Agronomy Department, the College of Agriculture in National Yunnan University, and the Plant Protection Department in the College of Kunming Agricultural and Forestry was established in 1958.

Adhering to the college spirit of "Cultivate morality, Be erudition, dedication and innovation", relying on the advantages of biodiversity resources in Yunnan, and carrying forward the tradition of several generations of Plant Protection faculties working hard and working together, Plant Protection has developed into a national characteristic specialty, a national first-level specialty, a provincial key specialty in Yunnan and a brand specialty in Yunnan Province.

The specialty, relying on the first level discipline of Plant Protection, was approved to award master's degree in 2003, PhD degree in 2005, and established Post-doc station in 2007. It hosts to teaching and research platforms and teams, such as the National Engineering Research Center for Applied Technology of Agricultural Biodiversity, the State Key Laboratory for biological resources conservation and utilization in Yunnan Province, the Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education for Agricultural Biodiversity and Disease Control, the Key Laboratory of Plant Pathology in Yunnan Province, the Research and Training Center for Potato Crops in Southeast Asia, Yunnan Crop Resistance Identification Station, the Provincial-ministerial Joint-cultivation Base and the State Key Laboratory for Applied Technology of Agricultural Biodiversity, Yunnan Biodiversity and Biotechnology Innovation Personnel Training Base, Academician Workstation in the Field of Plant Protection, national and provincial Outstanding Teaching Studios, Yunnan Key Discipline Group, Yunnan Class-A Peak Discipline (First-class Disciplines), and national and provincial Innovation Team. In 2019, the College of Plant Protection was selected as the Benchmark College of Party Construction and the Model Party Branch of Party Construction of national colleges and universities, highlighting the first-class level of the faculty in the College of Plant Protection.

There are 41 full-time teachers in Plant Protection specialty, of which 41.5% professors, 26.8% associated professors and 80.5% with PhD degrees. There are 1 academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, 1 Committee member of the Ministry of Education, 1 Role Model of the Times, 1 entitled the National Outstanding Professional and Technical Talent, 1 entitled National Model Teacher, 1 entitled National Outstanding Teacher, 2 chief scientists of 973 projects, 1 member of National Millions of Talents in the New Century, 1 entitled National Model Worker, 1 entitled National May 1st Labor Prize, 1 entitled National Excellent Communist Party Member, 4 experts with special allowances of the State Council, 1 won He Liang-He Li Scientific and Technological Progress Award, 1 won Scientific and Technological Personnel with Outstanding Contributions to National Food Production, 1 won Huo Yingdong Education Foundation Young Teacher Award, 1 won China Agricultural Society Young Science and Technology Award, 2 entitled Yunling Scholar, and 1 entitled Yunnan Distinguished Professor, 3 entitled Yunnan Famous Teacher, 1 entitled Yunling Famous Teacher, 1 entitled Excellent Teachers in Yunnan Province, 1 won Educational Merit Award of Yunnan Province, 2 winners of Xingdian Talent Award, 8 members of Young and Middle-aged Academic and Technical Leaders / Reserve Talents in Yunnan Province, 6 members of Thousand Talents Plan in Yunnan Province, 3 experts entitled Outstanding Contributions in Yunnan Province, 4 experts with Special Allowance from Yunnan provincial government, 1 entitled Excellent Teacher in Yunnan Province and 1 won Educational Merit Award in Yunnan Province. In 2019 and 2020, faculty members won the special prize of Yunnan University Teachers' Teaching Skill Competition, and the second prize of National University Teachers' Teaching Innovation Competition in 2021. It has built a national outstanding professional and technical team led by academicians and famous teachers, a national biodiversity utilization and conservation innovation team, the first batch of Huang Danian Model Teachers in National Colleges and Universities, and a national teaching team for Plant Protection. The faculty is a team, represented by the Role Model of the Times, undertaking important tasks of the times.

The major of Plant Protection has built National High-quality courses, High-quality Video Open Courses, High-quality Resource Sharing courses and first-class courses, compiled a series of National Level Official Textbooks and won the National Excellent Textbook Award. Projects and practice bases, such as National Virtual Simulation Experiment Project, National Off-campus Practical Education Base, and Plateau Characteristic Agricultural Science and Technology Academy of the Ministry of Education, provide deep integration of scientific research innovation, and achievement application with teaching practice, which led to the second prize of National Teaching Achievement, the second prize and the third prize of the First National College Students' Plant Protection Professional Capacity Competition. The faculty members in Plant Protection major focus on the development requirement of ecological agriculture and take advantage of biodiversity, and a large number of green plant protection talents with international vision have been trained.