With the implications of newtype urbanization and agricultural modernization, an analysis of the supporting mechanism of agricultural modernization in Shaanxi to newtype urbanization was first made by LevisRanis Model and then the effects of agricultural modernization in promoting newtype urbanization was emphatically demonstrated with Shaanxi’s 20002012 data. The results show that the 10 indexes measuring Shaanxi’s level of agricultural modernization, including the number of family members supported by each farming worker, the total power of agricultural machinery on unit area of cultivated fields, the quantity of effective chemical fertilizer on unit area, the efficiency of production, and the average area of cultivated fields of farming workers, all have obvious effects on newtype urbanization. To further upgrade Shaanxi’s level of agricultural modernization to provide support for newtype urbanization, it is recommended that the transfer and reemployment of agricultural population should continue to be encouraged, that investment in agricultural machinery should be strengthened to enhance transformation of traditional agriculture by quickening the “four modernizations” and that chemical fertilizer should be reasonably used to optimize and synthesize rural land resources.

agricultural modernization; newtype urbanization; promotion effect; LevisRanis Model; economic development in western China