Abstract: For a long time，limited by Chinese agricultural development model，small agricultural machinery has not been able to obtain a good development space，with little investment in research and development and low industry attention，and has been wandering at the low end of industrial chain.However，with continuous development of Chinese economy and society，as well as change of cultivated land type，food consumption structure and agricultural planting mode，market demand for small agricultural machinery is becoming increasingly strong.Development status，driving factors and development direction of small agricultural machinery were analyzed by starting from definition and classification of small agricultural machinery，technical requirements，trying to provide reliable suggestions for development of small agricultural machinery in China.