Abstract: Shortage of water resources is main problem facing agricultural production in northern China．Current agricultural irrigation（amount and time）in this region mostly depends on manual control, which not only wastes water resources but also threatens crop growth．Promoting agricultural intelligent irrigation technology is an effective way to achieve intelligence and scientificization of agricultural irrigation and improve efficiency of water resource utilization．Development status and existing problems of intelligent irrigation in water shortage region of northern China were summarized．A variety of farmland intelligent irrigation technologies and their applications in different types of crop land were listed．Suggestions and prospects for developing intelligent irrigation were put forward, expecting to provide a reference for application of agricultural intelligent irrigation in northern China．