Abstract: The government provides most of the investment in fundamental, strategic, and non- profit agricultural science research in China, and agricultural research institutes, which take charge of completing numerous fundamental, cutting- edge, and non- profit research tasks, are the main beneficiaries. Such investment is mainly used to support special subject research, scientific research unit operation, basic scientific research for strengthening the development R&D talents, instrument and equipment purchase for improving the basic conditions for agricultural science research, and scientific research building construction and renovation. Over the short term, the government’s overall investment in agricultural science research is constantly increasing. However, the increment of investment in agricultural science development is restricted due to limited government financial resources. As a result, adjusting the investment direction based on the existing investment amount is one of the most important ways to improve the efficiency of fund utilization. Taking the agricultural research institutes as an example, this article uses quantitative and path analysis to determine the main investment direction and propose some related measures and suggestions.