Founded in 1956, the Department is the main body for both the National Center for Efficient Irrigation Engineering and Technology Research (Beijing) and the National Center for Quality Supervision and Test of Agricultural Irrigation and Drainage Equipment. The main activities of the Department focus on strategy studies on development of irrigation and drainage and rural water supply; research and extension of  irrigation and drainage, agricultural water-saving technology and equipment, rural water supply technology and equipment; development planning and standard compilation, testing and certification for related products.

Under the Department there are 5 sections with a staff of 46, including 13 professor-level senior engineers and 10 senior engineers. For  education background of the staff, 14 have doctoral degree, and 19 have master degree.

Section of Development Strategy

● Strategy and countermeasure study for rural water resources, and development planning for agricultural water saving and rural water supply
● Study on water demand, irrigation quota, and agricultural water-saving potential for regional crops
● Impacts of modern water irrigation and drainage technologies on regional water-soil environment and eco-system
● Agricultural water saving, rural investment mechanism, management mechanism, and water pricing policy

Section of Water-saving Irrigation Technology

● Modern sprinkler and micro-irrigation technologies and equipments; precision surface irrigation technologies and equipments
● Modern pipeline water transfer and distribution, channel lining, prevention of seepage, anti-freezing and expansion
● Precision controlled irrigation; crop water-fertilizer coupling and regulation
● Design, rehabilitation, and transformation of modern irrigation and drainage systems

Section of Irrigation Water Management Technology

● Optimal deployment and conjunctive dispatching of irrigation water resources
● Irrigation information management and decision-making support system based on modern technologies
● Technology and equipment for measuring and monitoring irrigation water

Section of Rural Water Supply and Drainage Technology

● Purification of poor quality water and polluted water; safe collection, storage and utilization of rainfall
● Safe water supply, sterilization, water quality testing and automatic monitoring
● Protection of rural drinking water source; treatment and reutilization of domestic sewage
● Reutilization of farmland drainage; prevention and control of nonpoint source pollution

Section of Training and Extension

● Training and technical extension on water-saving technology and rural water supply technology
● Training and technical extension on groundwater resources exploitation, drinking water resources and radial collected wells