Agricultural science in Chile began in 1881 with the establishment of the Agronomic Station of the National Society of Agriculture (SNA). In this article we described the history and evolution of research and development (R+D) and human capital training in this field. The main research institution, in terms of territory coverage and human resources, is the Instituto de Investigaciones Agropecuarias (INIA), along with five regional research centers, specialized in different aspect of agricultural science, and 20 schools of agriculture and 11 doctoral programs associated to different universities. Public investment in agricultural R+D is provided by the Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Economy and Regional Governments, reaching around US$200 million in the last decade. The number of researchers in agricultural science is ~ 40 per million of inhabitants (~ 800 in total). An average of 140 projects per year are financed in agriculture R+D by different funding agencies. The scientific productivity was estimated in ~ 0.45 articles (Scopus) per researcher. It is concluded that, although significant progress has been made the last decades, there is still a reduced number of researchers and insufficient investment to face urgent challenges of the agricultural sector in Chile.