This study adopts econometric models to link the formal credit constraints with agricultural output and short-term investment in rural China. The empirical results show that formal credit constraint does impinge significantly on agricultural production, and credit-constrained farmers mostly depend on family endowment. In case where the formal credit demand is fully met, the average output per mu will increase by 14.6%. According to further analysis, formal credit constraints have a differential impact on short-term agricultural inputs. Demand-side credit constraint restrains the purchase to agricultural machinery service, while supply-side credit constraint has negative effects on fertilizer inputs, but not on seed, pesticide inputs and labor hiring. Acknowledgement : The paper was supported by the Programs of National Natural Science Found of China (NSFC) (71573262), China Agriculture Research System (CARS-02), as well as the Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation Program (ASTIP-IAED-2018-03).