Abstract: Recently, the Poyang Lake basin, one of the important commodity grain bases in China, is experiencing severe low-water conditions, frequent droughts, which reduced grain production and caused serious agricultural losses. Since the Poyang Lake basin is, decreasing the grain loss caused by drought in the region Research on the systematic agricultural drought to reduce the food loss in the Poyang Lake basin plays a critical role in guaranteeing the food security of China. Based on the daily ground soil moisture monitoring data of 22 moisture stations from 2011 to 2020, the daily rainfall data of 49 rainfall gauge stations from 1956 to 2020, and the meteorological data from 2016 to 2019 in the irrigation area where the moisture station located, we used the Soil Water Deficit Index (SWDI), which considers the physiological state of vegetation, to characterize agricultural drought. The temporal and spatial distribution of moisture content, water shortage in the aeration zone and precipitation at different time scales was analyzed, and the reliability of SWDI was evaluated in agricultural drought monitoring in the Poyang Lake basin. In addition, we revealed the temporal and spatial evolution of agricultural drought in the watershed and its response to meteorological drought, and preliminarily explored the correlation between soil texture and agricultural drought intensity. The results showed that the soil water deficit index applied well in evaluating the agricultural drought in the Poyang Lake basin. The agricultural drought in the basin has aggravated in the past ten years, and the most severe disasters occurred in 2019—2020. The summer-autumn-winter drought is the dominated seasonal agricultural drought, whi ch has a significant impact on the yield of rice, rapeseed and other grains. Compared with meteorological drought, the occurrence and ending time of agricultural drought are about 2.5 weeks and 3 weeks later, lasting 10.1 weeks longer, while the frequency is lower, and the drought intensity is smaller. Sandy soil has the worst water holding capacity and is prone to severe agricultural drought. Clay and clay loam soils have the best water holding capacity, with a higher probability of light drought and moderate drought; loam, sandy loam and loamy sandy soil are between the two of them.