Abstract: To deal with water shortage from unreasonable planting and irrigation modes in Shiyang River Area, 5 crop rotation systems with regulated deficit irrigation (RDI) was developed. Crop equivalent yield, water consumption, equivalent WUE, economic WUE and economic benefit were evaluated. Based on the study, for a rotation system, the overall order of equivalent yield, water consumption and economic benefit was full irrigation>mild RDI>severe RDI, the order of equivalent WUE and economic WUE was mild RDI>full irrigation>severe RDI. Compared with the other crop rotation systems, oil sunflower-wheat/soybean and wheat/soybean -wheat rotation systems had greater potentials in terms of yield, saving-water and economic benefit. In comparison with the traditional wheat/maize rotation, their equivalent yield increased by 14.1%~29.5% and -0.4%~28.7%, water-saving increased by 42.2~96.5 mm and 47.9~58.7 mm, equivalent WUE increased by 24.8%~37.3% and 8.2%~36.0%, economic WUE increased by 119.8%~149.2% and -0.1%~26.1%, and income increased by 25 785~29 656 Yuan·hm^-2 and -614~5 501 Yuan·hm^-2, respectively. Hence oil sunflower- wheat/soybean and wheat/soybean-wheat systems proved to be the better cropping modes. The two systems enhanced water-saving and economic WUE under mild RDI. It was recommended that the two cropping systems be used in place of the traditional wheat/maize rotation system to realize the full potential of agricultural production in the Shiyang River Area.