Abstract:The purpose of this paper is to understand the present situation of agricultural water resources utilization in nine provinces of the Yellow River Basin and to clarify the obstacles to improve agricultural water resources utilization efficiency. Based on entropy weight Topsis model, 9 provinces of the Yellow River Basin were taken as evaluation units, and 14 evaluation indexes were selected from resource utilization efficiency, economic benefit and ecological benefit to construct a comprehensive evaluation index system of agricultural water resources utilization efficiency. The agricultural water resource utilization efficiency was evaluated by the comprehensive evaluation index system and its obstacle factors were diagnosed in 2004, 2009, 2014 and 2019. The results showed that:(1) From 2004 to 2019, the agricultural water resource utilization efficiency in Qinghai, Inner Mongolia, Henan, and Shandong was relatively high, while that in Shaanxi, Gansu, and Shanxi was relatively low. (2) From 2004 to 2019, the agricultural water resources utilization efficiency of the nine provinces increased on the whole, and the difference of agricultural water resources utilization efficiency among the nine provinces gradually decreased. (3) The main obstacle factors of Shanxi, Shandong, Henan, Sichuan, Shaanxi, Gansu, and Ningxia were per capita water resources (A6) and per capita ecological water consumption (A13); per capita ecological water consumption (A13) and agricultural water resource utilization efficiency (A4) were the main obstacles in Qinghai. Average water resources occupancy (A6) and total agricultural production value (A9) were the main obstacles in Inner Mongolia. Therefore, water resources endowment and ecological water consumption are the main factors affect the agricultural water resources utilization efficiency in the nine provinces.