Barani College not only withstood all adversaries and hazards but attained the level of excellence to become a university during 1994. The University of Arid Agriculture, Rawalpindi ordinance was promulgated by the Governor of Punjab in December 1994 while the University Act was passed by the Punjab provincial Assembly in May 1995 and University initiated its first academe program from October 1995. Since the establishment of university, agronomy department is heavily involved in teaching and research dealing with areas such as dryland cropping systems, stress physiology, genetic transformation of crops, biological nitrogen fixation, water use efficiency, integrated weed management, seed production and technology, plant nutrition, intercropping and simulation modeling with the following objectives.

1. To produce properly trained manpower with great emphasis on dryland agriculture.
2. To undertake appropriate applied research and the creation of site-specific improved technology in order to bridge the income gap between the irrigated and rainfed areas.
3. To establish effective linkage between education, research and extension for proper transfer of improved technology to the farming community.

Agronomy department offers B.Sc, M.Sc. and Ph.D. degree programmes with major emphasis in dryland crop production. At present, the department comprises 13 faculty members who are highly qualified and majority of them hold Ph.D. degrees and are well recognized for excellence in both basic and applied research in the area of their interest.

So far, this department has produced 426 and 130 undergraduate and postgraduate students respectively.Most of the graduates produced by this department are serving in government departments and private organizations of the country. Some of them have proceeded abroad for higher studies. Reports of their performance from their employers is very encouraging. Similarly, research work of members of agronomy faculty has been published in journals of national and international repute.