Abstract: Since 1985, along with climate change and planting structure adjustment, spatial matching patterns of agricultural land and water resources in Sanjiang Plain has changed from rain breeding agriculture to rain breeding-irrigation agriculture. At the same time, spatial matching patterns of agricultural land and water resources changed too. Based on the traditional connotation of agricultural land and water resources matching coefficient (ALWMC), the authors adopted a bottom- up approach, calculated the matching factors of agricultural land and water resources in Sanjiang Plain in 4 periods (1985, 1990, 2000 and 2010) by water footprint perspective of main food crops, and further studied the spatial pattern of agricultural water and soil resources in this area. The results showed that the ALWMC of each studied year in Sanjiang Plain was all higher than the mean coefficient in northeast China (4341 m3/hm2) but lower than that of the national average (6213 m3/hm2); the spatial matching pattern of agricultural land and water resources in the Sanjiang Plain area showed“the north and south superior to east and west, and the marginal land superior to the back-land”, and the spatial matching pattern of agricultural land and water resources in Tangyuan, Huachuan and Luobei were better and stable，but that in Baoqing, Boli and Qitaihe District were worse and that of other areas were fluctuated. Therefore, the development in Sanjiang Plain should consider both market requirement and land and water resources, giving priority to water-saving, keeping spatial equilibrium, and planning scientifically with targeted policy application.