Abstract: Research on the water footprint of primary crop production in Liuyang, a county-level city, will be served as an essential part of studying the carrying capacity of water resources and water environment at the village and town level. Using the theory and method of water footprint as well as the CROPWAT model, this paper calculates the evapotranspiration and effective precipitation. At the same time, it calculates the water footprint of the major crops based on the data of meteorology, crop coefficients and yield, fertilizer use and soil conditions. Such methods are used to calculate and analyze the water footprint of major crops of early rice, middle rice, late rice, rape and vegetables in Liuyang City in 2018. The results show that the water footprints in unit mass of early rice, middle rice, late rice, rape and vegetables in Liuyang City sums up to 1 310 m3/t, 1 390 m3/t, 1 250 m3/t, 3 310 m3/t, and 380 m3/t, respectively. Based on these calculation results, this research focuses on comparative analysis in three areas, namely, main indicator areas, main consumption areas for crops, as well as virtual water and regional water resource management. This research can enrich the methodology of water footprint from the bottom up and help to improve water resource management strategies in smaller watersheds.