The water problem of red soil in the hilly region of Central China and its effective management are described in this paper. Results show that in this area the drought in summer and autumn is severe due to unequal distribution of rainfall during a year though there is rich, precipitation annually, becoming one of the primary barriers affecting agricultural production. The water-storage capacity, especially the available water-storage capaciaty, in red soil is smaller and the water content available to plant growth is limited, which promote the progressive development of drought situation. Developing trickle irrigation in a planned way and soil surface mulching and use of storing water in deep layer of red soil by adopting the intercropping or rotation cropping with deep rooted plants could be effective in increasing water use efficiency of red soil.