The agriculture is a “large water consumer”. Scientific evaluation of the utilization efficiency of agricultural water resources may provide the basis for the implementation of the strategy of rural revitalization. Based on the DEA-Malmquist index, an evaluation model for the utilization efficiency of agricultural water, which excludes the factors of resource endowment, economic level and government expenditure, is established. The utilization efficiency of agricultural water in 31 provinces(regions, cities)from 2011 to 2015 is estimated, and its heterogeneity in spatial pattern and time series is analyzed. The results show that the redundancy value of agricultural water is positively correlated with the water resource endowment, economic level and effective irrigation area, while it is negatively correlated with the government expenditure on agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery. Changes in technological progress lead to changes in productivity, while those in scale efficiency restrict changes in the technological efficiency. The rational allocation of financial funds, improvement of production technology and expansion of agricultural production scale are the main direction of solutions to the utilization efficiency of agricultural water.