Abstract: Drought is the main factor that influences maize yield in southeastern Gansu. To explore the drought meteorological risk of maize planting in this region, the authors analyzed the occurrence frequency of all drought levels and their effect on maize yield, set up the drought meteorological insurance index and calculated the risk compensation amount of drought on maize yield based on the data of precipitation and maize yield of 7 weather stations in Tianshui from 1961 to 2015. The results showed that: the frequency of non- influence drought on maize was the highest, up to 27.9%; the frequency of heavy drought that appeared successively in spring, early summer and hot summer was 0.1%; the combination of heavy drought in spring and hot summer and medium drought in early summer had a frequency of 0.1% and the combination of heavy drought in early summer and hot summer and medium drought in spring had a frequency of 0.2%, they all belonged to small probability events; there were 9 kinds of drought combination free from compensation when the drought meteorological insurance index was ≤ 10%, 17 kinds of drought combination had the insurance compensation standard ranged from 0% to 10%, 38 kinds of drought combination had the insurance compensation standard ranged from 10% to 40%; there was no drought combination that had the insurance compensation standard (the drought meteorological insurance index was above 50%) above 40%.