Abstract: In order to understand the current situation of rural water environmental protection and farmers’ environmental protection cognitive level in northern area of Jiangsu, this research discussed farmers’ water utilization characteristics, environmental behavior, and their evaluation of the local water environment and perception in government management policy by means of questionnaire survey in Xuyi and Sheyang, two counties in the northern part of Jiangsu Province. The results showed that: drinking water in rural of Xuyi came mainly from centralized lake-reservoir and scattered self-provided well water supply, while river water and centralized groundwater became the main source of the dringking water in Sheyang. And the water consumption of the farmers who got water from self-provided well was significantly higher than those who used tap water. Farmers, usually with irrational environmental behavior, discharged the domestic sewage in an extensive way and were always treating rubbish by dumping it in the river or simply with an open-air stack, which led to serious environmental problems, such as riverway blockages and water pollution. People treated human and animal excreta mainly by dumping it into the septic tank or returning it to field after compost, while the major disposing ways of straw was burning it for use as fuel or returning it to field after comminution. The study proved that farmer’s environmental awareness, which was presented as the type of ‘depends on government’, was in urgent need to be improved.