Objective/Meaning The ethnic minority areas are the main battlefields to carry out the poverty alleviation work in China. Promoting the development of agricultural modernization in these areas will help to realize their industrial revitalization and thus promote the economic and social development.

Methods/Procedures The evaluation index system of agricultural modernization in the southwest ethnic areas was constructed from the four aspects, including agricultural industry, agricultural production, agricultural management and agricultural ecological environment. The multi-index comprehensive measurement method, obstacle degree model and spatial econometric model were used to analyze the agricultural development status of the region, and explore the internal and external influencing factors of agricultural modernization development.

Results/Conclusions The results showed that: (1) the level of agricultural modernization in the southwest ethnic areas showed a trend of gradual improvement over time, and the development level of each province was positively correlated with the spatial agglomeration; (2) The internal constraints have changed over time, and the problems such as low income of households, backward level of agricultural technology and fragile ecological environment were more prominent; (3) The natural resource endowment and agricultural industrial structure had a significant positive spatial spillover effect on the agricultural modernization in the study area, while the level of economic development had a negative spatial spillover effect. Based on this, the corresponding countermeasures and suggestions were put forward from the aspects of promoting the integration of three industries, improving the digital literacy of the grassroots agricultural technicians, continuously carrying out the action of reducing the pesticide & fertilizer and increasing the organic fertilizer application, and constructing the sharing mechanism of regional interest.