Abstract: Since 1978 to 2008, the policy reform and opening-up in China has carried out 30 years. In this stormy 30 years, China agriculture has undergone enormous changes, has scored great achievements. According to the inspecting of the development course of agriculture in China, the agricultural development of China is divided into four stages: high-yield phase (from 1978 to 1984), high-quality phase (from 1985 to 1991), and efficient phase (from 1992 to 2001), and the security phase (from 2002 to now), and the characteristics of agricultural development at each stage of have been summarized and analyzed. The paper has an important reference value for the sustainable development of agricultural in China at new stage of new century.