Abstract:In most areas of the world,water shortage is caused by over use of water in agricultural sector.As the biggest user,improvement on water use efficiency(WUE) in agriculture is crucial for solving regional water shortage and securing food production especially for China,with the highest population in the world.After over 20 years’ development,China’s water-saving agricultural research has expanded from original mainly focusing on field water-saving to three scales: genetics level to improve WUE of single crop through crop breeding,field level to improve WUE by efficiently controlling water transfer in Soil-Plant-Atmosphere-Continuum(SPAC),and spatial or regional level to improve WUE by monitoring and managing agricultural water use and by regulating crop patterns.Meanwhile,studies on efficient use of multiply water resources such as brackish water,waste water,rainwater and even sea water are also carried out.Such studies have greatly increased the potential for keeping an acceptable food production under water shortage condition.However,present economic condition and especially individual small farm land limited the application of modern technologies and development of basic infrastructures for modern irrigation.Future efforts should more rely on governmental input to improve irrigation infrastructure to secure China’s irrigation area and irrigation WUE.Meanwhile,in field level,water-saving will rely on farmers’ incentive to adopt new technologies of water saving.And thus,development and application of suitable field water-saving technology,high WUE crops,technologies for spatial and farmer level water use monitoring,and water policies to regulate farmers’ water use and saving are all important for a successful water-saving society in agriculture.