Abstract: Drought resistance of 21 upland rice varieties was studied by change of the major agronomic traits of upland rice varieties cultivated in the paddy and upland field, which was correlative with crop production. The result indicated that compared with paddy cultivation, the dry cultivation of upland rice varieties had longer growth date, lower effective fringe number, lower filled grains number, lower seed setting rate and lower 103 grain weight. Through correlation analysis, path analysis and regression analysis of major agronomic traits and drought resistance of upland rice varieties under water stress, we found that principal factors which influenced rice yield under the dry cultivation condition were effective fringe number, filled grains number and 103 grain weight. To achieve high yield under water stress, the high- yield production measures like stabilizing the number of effective fringe and increasing the number of filled grains per panicle and the weight of 103 grain should be applied in the cultivation process of upland rice.